The Paper reporter Yang Yang
Following Meta, Amazon also started a second round of large-scale layoffs.
On March 3, local time, e-commerce giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) announced that it will continue to lay off 20,9000 employees, mainly involving cloud computing services (AWS), advertising business, PXT team responsible for personnel, experience and technology, and streaming video platform Twitch.
Amazon did not elaborate on the specific layoffs, saying only that it would determine which positions to be cut by mid-to-late April. Twitch's official website has said the division "will say goodbye to more than 4 employees," noting that Twitch's user and revenue growth has not "met the company's expectations" due to the economic downturn.
At the close of U.S. stocks on March 3, Amazon fell 20.1% to close at $25.97 per share.
In January, Amazon announced the layoffs of 1,1 people, the largest layoff in the history of the U.S. technology industry, and another announcement of layoffs means that the company will lose 8,2 employees in the coming months. According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks layoffs in the tech sector, the number of layoffs in tech companies has reached about 7,2022 since 30, with 2,7 layoffs accounting for 9% of them.
Regarding the layoffs, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement, "Due to economic uncertainty, we chose to streamline the company's costs and headcount again." ”
He also said that most of Amazon's business had been expanding in previous years, but given the situation the company was facing at the time, he thought the expansion was necessary.
In the early days of the pandemic, much of the action was moved online, and Amazon invested heavily in expanding its workforce. Between the end of 2019 and the end of 2021, the company added about 80,12 employees, and Amazon had about 154.<> million employees worldwide as of the end of December last year.
However, as the online dividend faded and consumers returned to physical stores, online demand began to decline, and Amazon began to cut some of its business and freeze hiring.
In addition, Amazon, like many of its tech peers, has recently faced slowing revenue growth. In the fourth quarter of last year, the company's AWS business experienced its lowest growth rate in history, and advertising revenue also slowed. Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said on the earnings call, "As early as the middle of the third quarter of 2022, we are seeing a slowdown in growth as enterprises of all sizes evaluate optimizing their cloud spending to cope with the tough macroeconomic situation." The CFO said AWS is likely to face headwinds for at least the next few quarters.
In addition to announcing layoffs, Amazon made other adjustments. The company recently announced a plan to return to the office, which was opposed by multiple employees; In addition, Amazon adjusted its stock-based compensation plan, which means many employees will face pay cuts this year. The Wall Street Journal said the changes could lead to higher voluntary turnover rates among employees.
It's not just Amazon, in fact, just last week, Facebook parent company Meta (Nasdaq:META) embarked on a second round of massive layoffs, announcing it would lay off 1,5000 employees and close about <>,<> open jobs.
Bloomberg said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in a recent internal meeting that the economic environment leading to layoffs and restructuring could last for "years."