Amazon to fire another 9,000 workers in a second round of layoffs

In early January, Amazon announced it was laying off more than 18,000 employees, a bigger number than the retail giant announced back in December when the New York Times reported the company was cutting 10,000 jobs.

The news was part of the company’s cost-cutting measure caused by softening economic growth amid the slowdown in the tech sector. A little over two months later, it now appears to layoff is a lot bigger than expected.

Today, Amazon.com said it would cut 9,000 jobs, making Amazon the latest in a series of tech companies to announce layoffs amid recession threats and global slowdown a possible recession. The latest cuts will impact workers in its cloud services, advertising and Twitch units. In a statement posted on the company’s website, CEO Andy Jassy said:

“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.”

Jassy said that the company had added a substantial amount of staff in the past few years, but the uncertain economy has forced it to choose cost and headcount cuts.

Amazon is not alone. Tech giants like Spotify, Google’s Alphabet, and Nvidia have all taken measures to rein in spending. Other companies like Coinbase, Shopify, Netflix, and Twilio have also announced layoffs.

Last week, Facebook-parent company Meta announced it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after it let go of 11,000 employees, making the social giant the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs.

Meanwhile, the global economic downturn that started in the second quarter of 2022 is beginning to have a major impact on tech companies. At least 502 tech companies have let go of 139,165 tech workers, according to Layoffs.FYI, a site that has been tracking all tech layoffs using data compiled from public reports.