Amazon To Dismiss Thousands More Workers As Big Tech Layoffs Continue

Amazon has announced that it will let go of approximately 9,000 of its employees, as part of a plan to become more efficient. The company had also laid off about 18,000 employees earlier this year. The majority of the layoffs will occur in business units such as Amazon Web Services and Twitch, as well as human resources and advertising divisions. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the uncertain economic climate has led the company to be more streamlined in its costs and headcount. However, he also claimed that new job openings were created while other positions were eliminated. The move comes as investors continue to warn about inflated payrolls and diminished demand, leading to lackluster profits. Similar cost-cutting moves have been made by other tech giants, such as Meta, which recently dismissed 10,000 employees, and decreased its headcount by more than 11,000 earlier this year. According to a report from Crunchbase, more than 106,000 workers have been laid off from technology firms so far in 2023, even after companies nixed about 140,000 positions last year. Along with job cuts, companies have also begun to end their virtual work policies, which were established during the pandemic. Amazon has required its employees to appear in physical office spaces at least three times per week, causing some backlash from workers who prefer remote work.