Amazon cuts 18,000 jobs to cut costs in face of global recession

Amazon’s redundancies represent about 6 per cent of the retailer’s overall corporate workforce. Photo / Ken Wolter

Online retail giant Amazon will lay off more than 18,000 of its workers in a cost-cutting initiative as a global recession looms.

Amazon’s redundancies represent about 6 per cent of the retailer’s overall corporate workforce of 300,000 people. Globally, Amazon employs more than 1.5 million workers, but many are casuals.

The company’s chief executive office Andy Jassy announced the massive job cuts to staff in a note on Thursday, calling it a “difficult decision”.

He claimed “the uncertain economy” and the fact Amazon had “hired rapidly over the last several years” meant internal reviews recommended the company scrap more than 18,000 roles.

“We are working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support,” Jassy said.

Those 18,000 people will start losing their jobs from January 18 through a combination of voluntary redundancies and terminations.

This is understood to be the largest job cut in Amazon’s history.

The job cuts will largely impact the Amazon Stores operations teams, with its People, Experience, and Technology team and also the Devices and Books business teams bearing the brunt of the terminations.

It’s unclear where these job cuts will apply to across the globe, including in Australia.

Amazon had already put a pause on hiring and flagged in November that mass job cuts were on the horizon.

However, it was initially thought that 10,000 staff would have to be let go in January; the final number is almost twice that.

Amazon is the latest tech giant to slash its workforce after Meta, formerly Facebook, revealed it would let go of 13 per cent of its workforce, axing up to 11,000 staff in the first round of redundancies in the company’s history.

Twitter’s new billionaire owner Elon Musk has also brutally reduced the social media platform’s workforce and at Microsoft at least 1000 people have been let go.