Amazon lays off employees in Cloud, HR units in fresh wave

SAN FRANCISCO: As e-commerce giant Amazon continues to lay off employees, reports have surfaced that the employees impacted in the fresh wave were mostly in its cloud computing and human resources (HR) divisions.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Adam Selipsky and HR head Beth Galetti sent memos to staffers in the US, Canada and Costa Rica informing them of the job cuts, reports CNBC.

"In other regions, we are following local processes, which may include time for consultation with employee representative bodies and possibly result in longer timelines to communicate with impacted employees," Selipsky said in the memo.

He said that given the rapid growth, as well as the overall business and macroeconomic climate, it is critical that "we focus on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities".

"In many cases this means team members are shifting the projects, initiatives or teams on which they work; however, in other cases it has resulted in these role eliminations," Selipsky explained, adding that the fundamentals and the outlook for AWS business are strong.

The layoffs are part of the previously announced job cuts that would affect 9,000 employees. In the first job cut round, Amazon slashed approximately 18,000 roles.

Combined with the cuts this month, it marks the largest layoffs in Amazon's 29-year history.

Galetti said in a separate memo that leaders across the company have worked closely with their teams to decide what investments they are going to make for the future, prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses.

"Given People Experience and Technology Solutions (PXT's) close partnership with the business, these shifts impact our OP2 plans as well, and we have made the difficult decision to eliminate additional roles within the PXT organization," she noted.

"These decisions are not taken lightly, and I recognize the impact it will have across both those transitioning out of the company as well as our colleagues who remain," added Galetti.

In the US, the company is providing packages that include a 60-day, non-working transitional period with full pay and benefits, plus an additional several weeks of severance depending on tenure, a separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support.

Amazon has also shuttered its health-focused Halo division and discontinued Halo Band, Halo View, and Halo Rise devices which are no longer available on its website. The company has also laid off employees from the Halo team.

The e-commerce giant was scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday (US time) after the market hours.