Online retail giant Amazon is cutting more than 18,000 jobs worldwide in its largest layoff program in history as part of a cost-cutting plan.
The job losses are understood to include the UK and Europe, but the company has not provided details on how each country will be affected.
The group, which employs about 1.5 million people worldwide, warned of job cuts in November without confirming numbers, but said it would need to cut more roles as part of a detailed review of its business. said to have discovered
According to Amazon, the most affected roles include store-wide, such as Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, as well as human resources departments.
CEO Andy Jassy said in a public memo to employees: “These changes will help us pursue long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.”
He denounced the move as being in an “uncertain economy”, adding that “we’ve been hiring rapidly over the past few years.”
Jassy also said the announcement was brought forward after one of its employees leaked details.
“We decided it would be better to share this news early so that you can hear more details directly from me,” Jassy said.
The group said it plans to notify staff directly affected by the cuts from Jan. 18 and is providing severance pay, temporary health insurance benefits, and job assistance.
He added: They are not in heavy people expansion mode every year. ”
Another US tech company also announced major job cuts on Thursday, with Salesforce cutting about 8,000 employees worldwide, or 10% of its workforce.
