And the wave of layoffs in technology companies continues, since the beginning of the second quarter of 2022. Amazon had already warned at the end of last year that it would eliminate at least 10,000 jobs on a global scale, and, at the beginning of the year, projected a target of 18,000 cuts in early 2023, as part of the company’s cost restructuring. Now, the giant retailer confirms the new wave of unemployed, with 9,000 layoffs – and a total of 30,000 employees laid off since the beginning of the crisis in the sector.
“This was a difficult decision, but one that we feel is best for the company in the long run,” CEO Andy Jassy wrote in the resignation memorandum. “Some may ask why we haven’t announced these role reductions with the ones we announced a few months ago,” he added. “The short answer is that not all teams finished their late fall reviews; And rather than rushing these assessments without due diligence, we chose to share these decisions as we make them so that people have the information as quickly as possible.”
This time, the round of cuts, which will take place in the coming weeks, will have a greater impact on the working hours of the Amazon Web Services, People Experience and Technology (PXT), advertising and Twitch divisions.
Justification for layoffs at Amazon was the “bubble” created in the pandemic
When the whole world found itself socially isolated due to the covid-19 pandemic, digital services and products saw an unprecedented boom, as many people began to use computers, mobile devices, instant communicators, streaming, cloud storage and several other items related to technology.
The market flourished so much in 2020 that, even though there were warnings about a possible “bubble” bursting with the end of the pandemic, many companies continued to bet big, and the sector hired a lot of people in 2021.
But, as we know, the “bubble” really burst when the pandemic slowed down and the whole world spent more time outside digital environments. In fact, the sector even saw a decrease in consumption of technology products and services greater than expected, possibly because people were saturated with virtual relationships and really needed more close personal interaction.
Amazon, like several other big tech companies, has rapidly increased headcount during the pandemic. “(The hires) made sense given what was happening in our business and the wider economy. However, given the uncertain economy we reside in, and the uncertainty that exists for the foreseeable future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” he added.
It is worth mentioning that, last week, Meta, Facebook’s controller, also announced the massive cut of over 10,000 workers, in addition to the 11,000 dismissals at the end of last year. So far, counting only the big techs on a global scale, there have been more than 100,000 layoffs since the second quarter of last year.
