Amazon’s layoffs hit HR, cloud-computing workers
Amazon began another round of layoffs Wednesday, part of a wave of job cuts that began in November and is expected to reach 27,000 roles globally.
Amazon said in March that it planned to continue its cost-cutting endeavors and eliminate another 9,000 roles, on top of the 18,000 layoffs announced late last year. In March, CEO Andy Jassy told employees that those who were impacted by the new round of cuts would find out in mid- to late April. It’s not clear how many of the expected 9,000 workers were laid off on Wednesday, or how the job cuts have impacted Amazon’s Seattle-area workforce.
In this most recent round, Amazon is cutting from its cloud-computing division — Amazon Web Services — as well as advertising, human resources and gaming. Already, Twitch has cut 400 jobs and Amazon laid off about 100 people from other gaming divisions. On Wednesday, Amazon began notifying workers who have been laid off from AWS and its human resources team, which Amazon calls People, Experience and Technology.
“It is a tough day across our organization,” Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS, wrote to employees in a note shared with The Seattle Times.
“Both the size of our business and the size of our team have grown significantly over recent years, driven by customer demand for the cloud and for the unique value AWS provides,” Selipsky wrote. “Given this rapid growth, as well as the overall business and macroeconomic climate, it is critical that we focus on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities.”
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That shift has led to many workers switching projects, initiatives or teams, he continued, as well as some role eliminations.
Amazon said workers who were laid off will have a 60-day nonworking transition period, a severance package and help finding external roles.
“While this moment is hard, I remain energized by the important work that lies ahead of us,” Amazon’s head of HR Beth Galetti wrote in a note to her team. “Together, we are building a workplace that helps fuel how Amazonians invent and deliver for customers.”
Source: The Seattle Times
