Amazon will now be extended to more than 18,000 positions as part of a headcount reduction it had previously revealed, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a note to staff published Wednesday.
The cutback decisions, which Amazon will communicate starting Jan. 18, will greatly affect the company’s e-commerce and human resources organizations, he said.
The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon’s roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce and represent a quick turnaround for a retailer that recently doubled its base salary cap to compete more aggressively for talent.
Jassy said in the note that annual planning “has been more difficult given the uncertainty of the economy and that we have contracted quickly in recent years.”
Amazon has more than 1.5 million workers, including warehouse staff, making it the second-largest private employer in the United States after Walmart Inc.
The company has bracing for likely slower growth as rising inflation has encouraged businesses and consumers to cut spending and its stock price has halved in the past year.
In November, it began laying off staff from its devices division and a source told Reuters at the time it planned to cut 10,000 jobs.
In number, its cuts now exceed 11,000 for Meta Platforms Inc, parent company of Facebook, as well as reductions by other companies in the technology sector.
