Wall Street Journal: Amazon will lay off thousands more than it expected

Amazon will lay off 17, 000 employees according to the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources. That’s almost twice the number it had previously expected to lay off.

Although Amazon has not confirmed the number it expects to let go, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in November job cuts at the e-commerce giant had begun and would continue into early 2023.

“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” Jassy wrote in a letter to staff November 17.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jassy said in November that the company hadn’t “concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted” by the layoffs, but added that “each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down.”

Multiple outlets reported in the fall that the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees.

Amazon and other tech firms significantly ramped up hiring over the past couple of years as the pandemic shifted consumers’ habits toward e-commerce. Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing whiplash and laying off thousands of workers as people return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.

Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

Salesforce this week said it would cut 10% of its staff.