Amazon to lay off 9,000 staff in second round of job cuts

Many of the 5,000 staff at Amazon’s operations in Ireland include software and network engineers in addition to warehouse workers in the company’s fulfillment centre in Dublin.

CEO Andy Jassy said the company had added substantial amount of staff in the past few years, but the uncertain economy has forced it to choose cost and headcount cuts. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Amazon is the latest Big Tech firm to announce a second round layoffs amid growing economic uncertainty as it plans to cut an additional 9,000 more staff from its global workforce.

These redundancies will largely impact the company’s cloud services, advertising and Twitch units.

Amazon's plans to make itself “leaner” come as the company suggested it had become bloated in terms of headcount due to a hiring spree while e-commerce boomed in the pandemic years.

“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,” wrote Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a blog post.

Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to increase the number of layoffs from 10,000, announced in November, to 18,000. The additional 9,000 expected cuts announced this week will shave a total 27,000 jobs from its global workforce of around 1.5m employees.

It is unclear how Amazon’s Irish employees will be impacted by the latest cuts announcement.

The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment last received a notification of proposed collective redundancies from Amazon on 15 February, 2023. This was after the company announced its first round of job cuts. The number of Irish job redundancies at the firm is said to be small in comparison to other locations.

The company employs around 5,000 staff at its operations in Ireland. Many of these roles include software and network engineers in addition to warehouse workers in the company’s fulfillment centre in Dublin.

In his blog post, Mr Jassy implied there would be some job cuts in Europe, but it remains unclear what countries will be affected. The global retail and delivery giant operates stores in nine European countries but has yet to enter the Irish physical retail space.

Reports last year signalled that the company’s bricks and mortar shops have been struggling as it confirmed plans to close 68 stores across the US and the UK.

Meanwhile, Facebook-parent Meta said it would cut 10,000 more jobs this year, following the first round of layoffs in the fall, which eliminated more than 11,000 jobs.

Sources indicate more tech firms will follow Meta and Amazon by cutting more people as the global economic environment becomes more volatile.