Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O) will lay off some people in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica by the end of Wednesday as part of its plan to let go of 18,000 workers, the e-commerce giant said in a memo to employees that Reuters saw.
The layoffs are the latest in the US technology sector, where companies are getting rid of their overworked employees and cutting costs to make up for what they spent too much on during the pandemic and get ready for a worsening global economy.
An update on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) site says that the company is firing 2,300 people in Seattle and Bellevue. US labour law says that companies that plan to lay off a lot of people have to tell their workers 60 days in advance.
Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy said earlier this month that the cuts, which would affect about 6% of the company’s 300,000 employees, would mostly affect the e-commerce and human resources departments.
Microsoft (MSFT.O) said earlier on Wednesday that it would cut about 10,000 jobs and take a $1.2-billion charge.