Amazon announces second round of layoffs - A Shock in IT Jobs

Amazon, the e-commerce giant and one of the world's most valuable companies, has announced another round of layoffs that will affect 9,000 more employees in the coming weeks. This comes after the company fired some 18,000 employees in January as part of its annual planning process.

The latest round of layoffs will impact Amazon's cloud computing, advertising, human resources and Twitch units, according to a memo sent by CEO Andy Jassy to staff on Monday. Jassy said that the decision was made due to the uncertain economy and the need to streamline costs and headcount.

"Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount," Jassy wrote. He added that some teams were not done with their analyses in late fall when the first round of layoffs was announced, so they decided to share these decisions as soon as possible.

Jassy also said that Amazon still plans to conduct "limited hiring" in some strategic areas and that it will provide support and severance packages to those who will lose their jobs. He thanked them for their contributions and wished them well.

The news of Amazon's second round of layoffs comes amid a wave of job cuts across the tech industry. Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), Google, IBM and Cisco are among some of the big names that have announced layoffs this year   , citing various reasons such as restructuring, shifting priorities or economic challenges.

While Amazon has been one of the beneficiaries of the pandemic-driven surge in online shopping and cloud services demand last year, it has also faced increased competition from rivals like Walmart and Microsoft , regulatory scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators around antitrust issues , and labor unrest from its warehouse workers over wages and working conditions .

Amazon's second round of layoffs is expected to be completed by mid to late April. The company has not individually identified everyone who will be affected yet. As of December 2022, Amazon had about 1.3 million employees worldwide.