Amazon isn’t done with its layoffs.
In a memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shared some insight into what was happening with the layoffs that the company announced earlier this week. According to Jassy, in addition to rolling out some mandatory layoffs in its Devices and Books businesses, the company also offered employees in other departments the option to resign.
In the memo, the Amazon CEO also announced that this wasn’t the end of the layoffs, Jassy confirmed that the company expects to go through further layoffs in 2023:
Yesterday, we communicated the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization. Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023. We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organizations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down. And, as has been the case this week, we will prioritize communicating directly with impacted employees before making broad public or internal announcements.
Jassy says that the company is first attempting to find affecting employees a new role at the company and, if that is not possible, offer them a severance package. The CEO did not provide exact details of what that package might look like.
We are working to support those who are affected and trying to help them find new roles on teams that have a need; and in cases where that’s not possible, we are offering packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.
Amazon announced its first round of layoffs earlier this week. In total, the layoffs could approach as many as 10,000 employees that will be affected. As we reported earlier, it appears to be a mass layoff season across the technology industry.
