Amazon.com Inc. plans more layoffs, but employees will have to wait until 2023 to see if their jobs are affected.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy said Thursday that while Amazon
AMZN,
already confirmed that it was eliminating jobs in its devices and books businesses, an unknown number of layoffs impacting other teams are still to follow.
See more: Amazon confirms layoffs, becoming latest tech powerhouse to slash roles
“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” he said in a blog post on the company’s corporate site. “Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023.”
While Jassy doesn’t know “exactly how many other roles will be impacted,” he does know “that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organizations.” The company already announced a “voluntary reduction offer for some employees” working in PXT, or People Experience and Technology Solutions.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Amazon could end up slashing 10,000 jobs.
Jassy took over as Amazon’s CEO in July 2021 and said Thursday that “without a doubt,” the move to cut staff is “the most difficult decision we’ve made” since he’s been in the role.
“It’s not lost on me or any of the leaders who make these decisions that these aren’t just roles we’re eliminating, but rather, people with emotions, ambitions and responsibilities whose lives will be impacted,” Jassy said.
He added that Amazon “has weathered uncertainty and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so.” Jassy emphasized that Amazon will continue to plug away on more established areas like stores, advertising and cloud computing, as well as newer initiatives like Prime Video, the Alexa voice assistant and healthcare.
Amazon joins other technology companies including Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
Snap Inc.
SNAP,
Shopify Inc.
SHOP,
and Twitter in recently eliminating jobs. An activist investor earlier this week urged Alphabet Inc.
GOOG,
GOOGL,
to cut positions as well.
See more: Here are the companies in the layoffs spotlight
Shares of Amazon were up 0.3% in after-hours trading Thursday after declining 2.3% in the regular session.
