Amazon starts new round of layoffs, to let off 18K employees

San Francisco: According to reports in the media, Amazon has begun notifying the employees who will be affected by its latest wave of layoffs as part of its aim to decrease its workforce by about 18,000 people.

Although the exact number of employees affected in this round is yet unknown, The Verge claims that the firm already cut off 2,300 workers in Washington, the majority of whom were employed in Seattle, home to one of the company's offices.

In November of last year, Amazon began its initial round of layoffs.

At the time, there were reports that around 10,000 people would be affected, including members of its hardware and services, human resources, and retail teams.

Earlier this month, Amazon confirmed the layoffs and their massive scale, saying that including the ones from last year, Wednesday's round, and potential additional cuts in 2023, they would affect 18,000 employees overall.

A memo from CEO Andy Jassy posted on the company's website announced that impacted employees would be notified starting on Wednesday.

Jassy said in a statement that they were not done with the annual planning process as earlier mentioned, and "I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023".

As Amazon announced to lay off 18,000 employees globally, including nearly 1,000 in India, reports have surfaced that some of the impacted employees broke down and were left "crying in the office" when they heard they have been asked to go.

On Grapevine, a community app for Indian professionals, an Amazon India employee posted sad scenes at offices, including people crying after the announcement of layoffs.

Amazon earlier admitted it was consolidating "some teams and programmes" in its hardware and services division, and Jassy had told workers that there would be "more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments" in 2023.

With inputs from IANS