Amazon to axe a further 9,000 jobs

Amazon has announced another 9,000 jobs cuts, mainly from the company’s cloud services, advertising and Twitch live-streaming units. 

This comes at a tumultuous time for the online retailer; in January, Amazon said it would cut 18,000 jobs and shortly after, it announced plans to close three warehouses and seven delivery sites in the UK, putting 1,200 jobs at risk. 

Separately, Amazon workers in Coventry made history this year, becoming the first UK workers at the firm to take industrial action in a dispute over pay and hours. Amazon employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide. 

The decision to scale back was announced in a memo sent to workers yesterday (Monday, 20th March). It comes days after Twitch’s c.e.o. Emmet Shear stepped down from his role. 

Due to the demands of the pandemic, Amazon has hired extensively over the past few years. However, in yesterday’s memo c.e.o.  Andy Jassy wrote that "given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount”. 

The news comes on the heels of similar decisions across the tech sector. Last week, Meta revealed plans to cut 10,000 jobs, while Google and Microsoft have also announced mass layoffs in recent days.