Amazon to cut 9,000 jobs in second round of layoffs

Amazon.com Inc. is laying off an additional 9,000 employees, adding to cuts that were already the largest round of firings in the company’s history.

Chief executive officer Andy Jassy announced the cuts internally Monday, saying they would occur in the coming weeks and primarily affect Amazon Web Services, human resources, advertising and the Twitch livestreaming service groups.

“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount," he said in his memo, published later to Amazon’s corporate blog.

The e-commerce giant has been laying off mostly corporate workers after a hiring spree during the pandemic left Amazon with too many people.

The company last month wrapped up a round of job cuts that totalled about 18,000 workers. Those layoffs landed heaviest on Amazon’s recruiting and human resources teams, its sprawling retail group and devices teams.

Amazon shares fell 1.7% to $97.29 at 11:25 a.m. in New York. The stock is up about 16% this year.

The cuts come less than a week after Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. announced that it was laying off another 10,000 employees and closing about 5,000 additional open roles in its own second major round of job cuts.