Amazon.com has announced that it would axe another 9,000 roles, piling on to a wave of layoffs that has swept the technology sector as an uncertain economy forces companies to get leaner.
In a remarkable turn for a company that has long touted its job creation, Amazon will have eliminated 27,000 positions in recent months, or 9% of its roughly 300,000-strong corporate workforce.
The latest cuts focus on Amazon’s highly-profitable cloud and advertising divisions, once seen as untouchable until economic concerns led business customers to scrutinize their spending.
The layoffs will affect Amazon’s streaming unit Twitch as well, following cuts that began in November focused on the company’s devices, e-commerce and human-resources organizations. Amazon aims to finalize whom it will terminate by April.
Amazon’s stock fell 2%.
The decision follows a near-endless drumbeat of layoff news in the technology sector that has seen some of the world’s most valuable corporations, among them Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc, sever ties with staggering numbers of employees they once courted in droves.
via Reuters
