Amazon to Lay Off 17,000+ Workers, Higher than Initially Planned

Amazon is expected to layoff 70% of its workforce, which will affect more than 17,000 employees. Previously, the cuts were expected to affect only 10,000 people, which is far lower than the new numbers from reports.

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LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 13: A view inside the Amazon fulfilment centre on December 13, 2021 in London, England.

Laying Off 70% of Workforce

Due to economic uncertainty, Amazon is set to cut its workforce to 70%. According to the Wall Street Journal's report, this will start over the coming weeks, the highest reduction tally revealed in the past year from a tech giant. More than 17,000 employees will be affected by this matter.

Although this news was not surprising to some as it was already announced that the company will conduct more layoffs among its corporate workforce last November, the initial plan only totals 10,000 employees. The first layoffs affected the corporate workforce, related to its devices business, recruiting, and retail operations.

Ever since the layoffs started, the company acknowledged the fact that they hired too many employees during the pandemic, which was Amazon's peak.

Almost 1.5 million were hired as of September last year, with a large portion of it in warehouse facilities. 350,000 of those are corporate employees worldwide. Because of this, the latest cuts would only represent about 1% of the workforce.

Amazon During Pandemic

Amazon has been adjusting its business since last year due to decreased sales, and pre-pandemic habits are coming back day by day. As per the report of Bloomberg, this includes delaying warehouse openings, halted hirings, and making job cuts.

The company was one of the biggest retailers to benefit from the lockdowns as several customers transitioned to online shopping in 2020.

These made Amazon's businesses increase, such as e-commerce, groceries, cloud-computing, and more. As these needed more workforce due to high demand, Amazon doubled its employees and added hundreds of thousands of new hires.

Other Companies

Aside from Amazon, Forbes reported other major layoffs from tech companies that continue this year.

Salesforce is expected to cut 10% of its workforce in the coming weeks, as announced by its Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff. This would affect 7,900 of its employees out of 79,000. According to an internal announcement, the decision comes as the company faces a challenging environment.

Vimeo also announced to its employees to reduce 11% of its workforce as they struggle with a "deterioration in economic conditions." These include geopolitical conflict, increasing interest rates, and a potential recession. This will be the second round of layoffs from the company in six months and would affect 150 employees.

Adobe also announced in December last year that 100 employees will be laid off from its sales department. But the company gave them the option to change positions within the company that suits their previous jobs.