Amazon on Wednesday began laying off some employees in its cloud computing and human resources divisions.
Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky and human resources head Beth Galetti sent notes to staffers informing them of the job cuts.
“It is a tough day across our organization,” Selipsky wrote in the memo.
The layoffs are part of the previously announced job cuts that are expected to affect 9,000 employees. Last week, Amazon laid off some employees in its advertising unit, and it’s let go staffers in its video games and Twitch livestreaming units in recent weeks.
Amazon wrapped up a separate round of cuts earlier this year that affected approximately 18,000 employees. Combined with the cuts this month, it marks the largest layoffs in Amazon’s 29-year history.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been aggressively slashing costs across the company as it reckons with an economic downturn and slowing growth in its core retail business. Amazon froze hiring in its corporate workforce, axed some experimental projects and slowed warehouse expansion.
By announcing layoffs in ads and AWS, Jassy has shown that two of Amazon’s biggest and most profitable businesses aren’t immune to the cost-cutting. Both AWS and ads have experienced slowing growth in recent months as companies trim their spending amid a challenging economic environment. Some teams within AWS were included in the earlier round of layoffs.
Amazon will report first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. Investors will be looking for any insight into whether Jassy’s cost-cutting efforts have improved profitability, and when Amazon executives expect AWS growth to reaccelerate.
Here’s the full memo from Selipsky:
AWS team,
As you know, we recently made the difficult decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon globally, including within AWS. I wanted to let you know that conversations with impacted AWS employees started today, with notification messages sent to all impacted employees in the U.S., Canada, and Costa…
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