Amazon starts planned cuts of 18,000 workers across US, Canada and Costa Rica
- The eliminations, about 1 per cent of its total workforce, started last year and initially fell hardest on the group behind the Alexa and Echo smart speakers
- Amazon is among several large tech companies trimming their ranks, including Microsoft, which announced it was cutting 10,000 jobs
Amazon began notifying employees by email early Wednesday, Doug Herrington, the company’s worldwide retail chief, said in a memo. He said the company aimed to communicate with all laid-off workers in the US, Canada and Costa Rica by the end of the day. Notifications in China will be sent after the Lunar New Year, and in other regions the company must consult with employee representatives before finalising lay-offs.
Herrington said Amazon’s cuts were part of an effort to lower costs “so we can continue investing in the wide selection, low prices and fast shipping that our customers love”. He said the company would “continue investing meaningfully” in growth areas including groceries, Amazon’s business-to-business sales programme, services for third-party sellers and healthcare.
The eliminations started last year and initially fell hardest on Amazon’s Devices and Services group, which builds the Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speakers. The latest round will mostly affect the retail division and human resources.
While the cuts represent only about 1 per cent of the total workforce, which includes hundreds of thousands of hourly warehouse and delivery personnel, they amount to about 6 per cent of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate employees around the globe.
Amazon shares rose about 1 per cent to US$97.14 at 11.14am in New York.