Amazon's mass job cuts will continue into 2023, says CEO

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The announcement of the continuation of lay offs into the new year comes after Amazon communicated that it has eliminated a number of positions across its Devices and Books businesses. Amazon has also offered a voluntary reduction for some employees in its People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organisation.

“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organisations early in 2023. We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted,” Jassy said.

Jassy mentioned that leaders across the company are working with their teams and looking at their workforce levels, investments they want to make in the future, and prioritising what matters most to customers and the long-term health of its businesses.

He said that this year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and they’ve hired rapidly over the last several years.

Those that are affected by the layoffs are being helped with finding new roles on teams in the business that has a need, according to Jassy. “And in cases where that’s not possible, we are offering packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.”

“We have big opportunities ahead, both in our more established businesses like Stores, Advertising, and AWS, but also in our newer initiatives that we’ve been working on for a number of years and have conviction in pursuing (e.g. Prime Video, Alexa, Kuiper, Zoox, and Healthcare),” Jassy said.