Amazon announced layoffs impacting 9000 employees in March 2023
Sources aware of the matter noted that the current downsizing round is part of the layoffs announcement made in March by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, which were to impact 9,000 employees.
Updated May 15, 2023, 5:21 PM IST
Amazon India has undergone a fresh round of layoffs impacting employees in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and People Experience and Technology Solutions (PXT) verticals, Business Today has learned from sources.
A source aware of the matter noted that the current downsizing round is part of the layoffs announcement made in March by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, which were to impact 9,000 employees.
“Current layoff round was announced in March. Individuals in Indian teams have been identified now and handed pink slips,” he said.
The source also noted that the layoff round might impact nearly 400-500 employees. Business Today has reached out to Amazon to confirm the same.
Another source said that around 100 employees have been laid off from People Experience and Technology Solutions (PXT) late last week.
“On Friday, my whole team was laid off, 17 people in total. I checked around roughly hundred people have been fired from PXT last week alone. PXT is one of the most vulnerable verticals,” the source said.
People Experience and Technology Solutions (PXT) refers to Amazon’s Human Resources team.
An employee working in the data management vertical at the company said, “More than 80 people were fired from data management teams on Friday. Severance is standard plus we will get medical insurance.”
AWS CEO Adam Selipsky had announced in an internal memo late in April that the layoffs at AWS would begin from the North American teams, and would then take place globally. He noted that the slowdown in growth of AWS revenues and the macroeconomic conditions were the major reasons behind the downsizing round.
“Both our company size and the size of our team have grown significantly in recent years, driven by customer demand for the cloud and the unique value that AWS offers. This growth has come quickly as we have moved as fast as we could to build what customers needed. Given this rapid growth, as well as the broader business and macroeconomic climate, it is critical that we focus on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities – the things that matter most to customers and that will move the needle in our business,” Selipsky wrote in the memo.
A similar memo was written in late April by Beth Galetti, Senior VP and Global Head of PXT at Amazon.
She wrote, “As Andy shared a few weeks ago, leaders across the company have been working closely with their teams to decide what investments to make for the future, prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses. Given PXT’s close association with the enterprise, these changes also affect our OP2 plans, and we have made the difficult decision to remove additional roles within the PXT organization.”
“These decisions are not made lightly, and I recognize the impact it will have on both those who leave the company and our colleagues who remain,” she added.