SEATTLE — Some Amazon employees may have to wait until next year to learn whether their jobs are safe.
Amid a round of layoffs that is expected to cut 10,000 jobs, CEO Andy Jassy said Thursday some team leaders are still making decisions — and those decisions will be shared with affected employees and organizations in early 2023.
“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” Jassy wrote in a note to employees.
Amazon confirmed Thursday it had already made cuts to two divisions — devices and books — and that reductions were coming to two more: stores and people, experience and technology, Amazon’s human resources division.
Stores covers most of the company’s consumer business, including online and physical stores, the marketplace for third-party sellers and Amazon’s Prime subscription service.
The devices group includes Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa, its health device Halo and its home robot Astro, as well as Kindle, smart home products and Echo speakers. For employees working on Alexa, the job cuts have spanned across projects, from gaming to car control to health and wellness, according to LinkedIn posts from former employees.
In the devices organization, some teams were already understaffed before the job cuts, according to one former employee who asked to remain anonymous. Based in Seattle, they had been working on the Alexa marketing team to promote engagement and felt they were doing the work of three or four people.
After three years at the company, they saw an invitation to a 15-minute meeting Tuesday morning with leadership, HR and their manager.
“Obviously I understood what was coming at that point,” said the former employee, who asked to speak anonymously to protect future job prospects. “It was a surprise how quickly it all happened, and wasn’t really clear how they decided who to let go.”
Amazon said it will help affected workers find new roles within the company, according to a blog post from Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services. For those who cannot find a new position, Amazon will offer severance, transitional benefits and support finding jobs elsewhere.
Jassy said Thursday some employees in the human resources division have been offered voluntary buyouts.
Amazon expects the job cuts will total around 10,000 people, which would represent roughly 3% of the company’s corporate employees and less than 1% of its global workforce of more than 1.5 million. That total workforce is primarily composed of hourly workers.
Amazon has declined to share how its Puget Sound-area workforce will be affected by the layoffs and has not yet filed any information with Washington’s Employment Security Department, which records job losses in the state.
Overall, “we haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted,” Jassy said Thursday.
