Amazon to lay off over 18,000 employees (update)

HJBC

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reducing its headcount by more than 18K employees the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy confirmed plans to eliminate “just over 18K roles” between the reductions made in November and the latest round in a statement. The company was previously projected to cut about 10K roles, but has accelerated layoffs due to economic uncertainty. The bulk of roles due for elimination are concentrated in Amazon Stores and PXT organizations, per the statement.

Jassy said that he was hoping to notify all impacted employees prior to his statement, but was forced to comment due to a report in the Wall Street Journal regarding the staff reductions.

"We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me," he said. "We intend on communicating with impacted employees (or where applicable in Europe, with employee representative bodies) starting on January 18."

The round of role eliminations fulfills a warning about further staff cuts voiced by CEO Andy Jassy in November.

“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023,” he told employees at the time.

Shares of Amazon (AMZN) rose 1.84% in Wednesday’s extended trading.

Read more on Salesforce’s recent staff cuts.

This article has been updated to include CEO Andy Jassy's confirmation of the staff cuts and commentary.

Comments

[Big Tex 6988]

Oh no, tech companies are being forced to run like any other company, managing costs and paying attention to the bottom line. The days of "growth" on the back of free money are over.

[Gary J is Rich on AMZN]

@Big Tex 6988

But not the days of growth by any stretch.

[Loophole69]

@Big Tex 6988 You remind me of all the pundits talking about the new normal when COVID hit. But the old normal returned.

There will always be a sector that will zoom with free money. Look at the history of the market.

[bobcowman]

Amazon "The retail behemoth confirmed that 18,000 employees will get the axe, with the bulk of the roles due for elimination concentrated in the firm's e-commerce and human resources organizations."
HR is a drag on business in every way.

[Illuminati Investments]

When one of the greatest companies in the world is telling you a recession is coming, listen.

[Seeking more alpha than you]

@Illuminati Investments the incoming recession has been known about well before this.

[bluescorpion0]

and it certainly isn't a great company. they've bungled a lot. Like Tesla and FB, a product of free money. Let's see how they stand on their 2 feet without it. They never experienced it since it hasn't happened in 40 years.

[Illuminati Investments]

@scorpionblue AWS absolves them of all their sins.

[OneMoreCup]

The "fuss" has to do w/ Amazon touted as high growth, high turnover company, so even a 1% headcount reduction is seen as NO NO because that spells slowing growth and PE will get adjusted accordingly. I wished, really wished, they would just trim 10% of workforce NOW and place more temps in their place for flexibility in case things pick up 2nd half of this yr. It can wash out the shorts/longs, leave the remaining holders in a better place vs the schizo swings in price....yes, a quick drop to $50-60 is preferred so a new base can form, and work its way up from there via solid improvements....The thing everyone is "afraid of", Amazon management take the drip, drip, drip approach. Every 2 quarters, more negative news/development, creating a vicious cycle of disappointments. Wall St hates uncertainties.....

[BeaBaggage]

all this fuss in a company, $AMZN, which has 1,544,000 employees, laying off 18,000. 1 tenth of a percent. .001 ..but 'headlines' ..fear!
Tech is hiring, CES in Las Vegas is packed.. bloated payrolls of $META and $CRM dont equate to Armageddon..cyber is hiring, biotech booming etc etc and headhunters are salivating at the prospect of filling jobs. H1b visa folks will be deported if not hired quickly and other companies will snatch them up. JOLTS sits at 10.5mil. Media driven panic time. www.siliconrepublic.com/...

[bluescorpion0]

yes public service is great! communism is awesome!

[GONGON]

But they are hiring in warehouse tho. So I guess everything is fine , the 3 months boot camp software engineers just need to move to work at the warehouse.

[JamesHPCP]

RL-Mode continues. (Recession, Layoffs) The Theme for 2023.

[Who Dat?]

I will bet Amazon will shut down their money losing Amazon Fresh and Wholefoods B&Ms.

[Skih20]

As to 18,000 layoffs, I would dare guess that Amazon loses at least that many employees each month to retirement + job hoppers + typical firings. Thus, is Amazon really doing anymore than essentially backing off from new hires? Any number of supposed layoffs is relatively meaningless without additional context.

[sabresfan21]

@Skih20 They might lose close to that many at the warehouse/driver level but not in the departments they will be cutting.

[Who Dat?]

@Skih20
Don’t worry, Walmart will hire them and make Walmart.com better than ever before.

[Maxed Out Mama]

@Skih20 They are laying off people in areas that don't have that type of attrition.

[bluescorpion0]

what business on earth can be worse than a retail operation with 1.5 million employees in a politically charged, highly inflationary environment with pressure on wages to rise? I'm surprised earnings are not turning negative. They need to add an extra zero to the 18,000 people fired.

[Gary J is Rich on AMZN]

@scorpionblue

Another chance -

Apple has all the money in the world and still borrows billions.

[the new generation]

18k people less getting abused at work

[John Naccarelli]

@the new generation how would you know that they are 'abused'? Did you mean to say that they are required to do their JOBS and that is just unfair?

[gregh90]

@the new generation being forcibly unemployed is better? If conditions were so abusive, wouldn't leaving on you own volition been the better play?

[the new generation]

@John Naccarelli www.forbes.com/... one of them and it's obviously supposed to be a funny comment and nothing serious

[Kayode Omotosho]

It seems Amazon added half a million jobs in 2022. Regardless, the cut is still significant compared to the total job growth in the IT sector last month.

[cheesepep]

Love it and fully support it. Cutting the fat is always a good thing. Forget about job protection. A lot of people don't do anything anyway. You can look at any company and find people basically do nothing or pushing unnecessary paperwork, some of which they themselves believe is important, but no one else. Any company lays off people.

[Dale Roberts]

Is the astronomical PE ratio listed on SA correct?

If so, perhaps we know why Bezos left. Must have been terribly mismanged through the pandemic.

Based on principle I don't know if I could ever own the 'buy and ship shit we don't really need company'.

Folks should get a life instead of stuff IMHO, ha :)

[European investor 99]

@Dale Roberts historical pe. forward pe. those are pe you are looking for and not a simple pe number. very simplistic approach checking a companies pe number just as it is.

[Dale Roberts]

@Stock nomad what do you see that the trailing and forward PE?

Thanks

[the new generation]

@Dale Roberts i don't know 77 is a crazy number

[ErikInvest]

so we are near the bottom.

[eurdone88]

Amazon had 1.5 million full and part time employees. 20k isn't a lot.

[S Lin]

@eurdone88 when Amazon said 10k last time, it was about 3% of corporate jobs, 18k will be close to 6%.

[Guraaf]

@eurdone88 These 18K are white collar jobs in their offices and not the delivery workers or warehouse workers which make up bulk of the 1.5 million.

[KJ62]

@Guraaf That is how it sounds. Office staff have been reduced, and not the warehouse package workers or delivery drivers.

[IdealTrader]

They couldn't fix top line so reverted to cut bottom line

[Jim Kimmelman]

@IdealTrader they added like 500k jobs the last 2 years.

[Who Dat?]

and yet, they splurged on $1B a year for Thursday Night Football just to stream a total of 15 games a year. Totally repulsive!

[Elons Mum]

@Who Dat? unless it is the catalyst to another line of business that can generate billions in the future.

[Who Dat?]

@Elons Mum
There’s no money to be made in streaming. It is why it’s free to stream Prime Videos.

[Gary J is Rich on AMZN]

@Who Dat?

"it’s free to stream Prime Videos."

Wow, I did not know that.

[josephaoppenheim]

Flegman puts a price target of 50 on it.

[BeenHoldin]

@josephaoppenheim Let us hope. That's a nice price.

[iridescent]

The winter is coming. If you have a job, enjoy it while you can