Amazon.com Inc.’s AMZN, -0.79% layoffs will affect more than 18,000 employees, the highest reduction tally revealed in the past year at a major technology company as the industry pares back amid economic uncertainty.
The Seattle-based company in November said that it was beginning layoffs among its corporate workforce, with cuts concentrated on its devices business, recruiting and retail operations. At the time, The Wall Street Journal reported the cuts would total about 10,000 people. Thousands of those cuts began last year.
The rest of the cuts will bring the total number of layoffs to more than 18,000 and will be made over the coming weeks. As of September, Amazon employed 1.5 million people, with a large percentage of them in its warehouses. The layoffs are concentrated in the company’s corporate ranks.
On Wednesday, after the Journal broke the news about the size of Amazon’s layoffs, Chief Executive Andy Jassy addressed the cuts in a blog post. “Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” said Jassy. He added that the majority of the cuts are on the retail and recruiting areas of Amazon. The blog post said the company would alert affected employees later this month.