On Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a note to employees that Amazon will lay off an additional 9,000 employees in the coming weeks.
The cuts come on top of previously announced layoffs that began in November and extended through January. That round totalled more than 18,000 employees, and primarily affected employees in the retail, hardware, recruiting, and HR groups.
Amazon made the decision to lay off more employees as it looks to streamline costs. Jassy noted that he took into account the economy, as well as the "uncertainty that exists in the near future."
The company has just completed the second phase of its annual budgeting process, internally referred to as "OP2".
“The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole,” Jassy said.
He mentioned in the memo that the latest round will mainly affect cloud computing, human resources, advertising, and Twitch live broadcast companies.
Amazon is undergoing one of the largest layoffs in the company's history after it went on a hiring spree during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company's global workforce swelled to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2021, up from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Jassy is also subject to a broad overview of the company's expenses as it anticipates an economic downturn and slowing growth in its core retail business. Amazon has frozen hiring for its workforce at the company, cancelled some pilot projects, and slowed warehouse expansion.
While the company aims to run smaller this year, Jassy pointed out he remains optimistic about the company's "largest businesses," retail and Amazon Web Services, as well as other new divisions it continues to invest in.
Amazon shares were down more than 2% in afternoon trading Monday.
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