There seemed to be quite a bit of optimism coming out of a vile 2022 – 2023 couldn"t be any worse, right? Well, that’s not the case for Amazon employees. The company’s CEO, Andy Jassy has penned a blog post explaining that the firm will “eliminate” 18,000 jobs that’ll impact several teams but mainly its Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology (PXT) Solutions teams.
With the cost of living rising due to inflation, job cuts couldn"t really come at a worse time for those affected. Jassy acknowledged how difficult it can be to be made redundant and explained that Amazon is working with those affected and is providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.
Amazon will communicate with the affected employees from January 18. The message put out today was only done so now because someone at Amazon leaked the news publicly and Jassy decided it was best to deal with the leak head-on. While American employees will be spoken to directly, in Europe, Jassy said that Amazon will deal with employee representative bodies, rather than individuals directly.
“To those impacted by these reductions, I want you to know how grateful I am for your contributions to Amazon, and the work you have done on behalf of customers,” Andy Jassy said ending his statement. “You have made a meaningful difference in a lot of customers’ lives. To those who will continue on the journey with us, I look forward to partnering with you to keep making life better and easier for customers every day and relentlessly inventing to do so.”
It was reported in November that the company was looking to cut around 10,000 jobs, however, as we can see from Jassy’s statement, the situation is much worse now and almost double the number of jobs will be lost. While it’ll be a difficult time for those being let go, around 79% of US workers who were sacked managed to find new jobs, though, not always in the same sector.