If you work at Amazon, we have some possible bad news for you. Following a wave of 18,000 job cuts earlier this year, e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) has announced plans to lay off another 9,000 employees. The decision to downsize comes in the wake of challenges faced by the company as it deals with a slowdown in online sales following its rapid expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter addressed to the employees, the CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, expressed regret over the decision and clarified that the bulk of the job losses would be concentrated in four areas: AWS cloud services, PXT division, advertising, and the Twitch online game streaming platform, as Yahoo Finance reveals.
CEO Andy Jassy explained, as the same publication quotes:
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,
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.
The announcement of yet another round of layoffs at Amazon underscores the challenges faced by the e-commerce behemoth as it navigates a post-pandemic world. With online sales growth slowing down and intense competition from rival retailers, the company will have to take strategic measures to maintain its position as a leading player in the industry.
Otherwise, Amazon is known as one of the world’s wealthiest and most valuable companies. As of 2021, Amazon’s market capitalization is over $1.7 trillion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company’s net income for 2020 was $21.3 billion, and its revenue was $386 billion, making it one of the largest companies by revenue in the world.
