Amazon lays off another 9,000 employees as cost-cutting measures intensify

Amazon is to let go of another 9,000 employees worldwide as the e-commerce giant ramps up its cost-cutting measures.

The announcement was made to employees of the firm in a note by CEO Andy Jassy, who said workers in the Amazon Web Services, human resources, advertising and Twitch units would be most impacted by the move, with the cuts taking place over a period of weeks.

It follows an earlier round of 18,000 layoffs announced in January, as well as the closure of a number of warehouses in the UK and an Amazon Fresh store in London. It is not clear how many UK jobs will be affected as part of the layoffs.

The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth, which has seen its share price fall almost 50% over the past year, employs over 70,000 staff in the UK. As of the end of 2022, Amazon employed 1.5 million people worldwide.

Amazon shares fell 1.5% after markets opened on Wall Street and are currently trading at $97.50. The fall brought Amazon’s market capitalisation back below $1 trillion, and cost CEO Jeff Bezos more than $1 billion.

Amazon’s peers in the tech sector have also taken steps to reduce their headcount in recent months. Last week, Facebook parent company Meta announced plans to cut another 10,000 jobs and eliminate 5,000 vacancies amid a slump in advertising revenues. Google, meanwhile, cut 12,000 jobs in January.

There have been nearly 140,000 layoffs in the tech sector worldwide since the start of the year, according to tracking site layoffs.fyi.