E-commerce company Amazon began laying off employees in its human resource and cloud computing divisions on Wednesday as part of the previously announced job cuts that will affect 9,000 people.
According to CNBC, the layoffs affect two of Amazon’s most profitable businesses, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and advertising. Both businesses have experienced stagnation in recent months as companies trim their spending amid the challenging economic environment.
Some teams within AWS were also part of an earlier round of layoffs. Moreover, some job cuts are also expected in AWS’s professional services division, which helps customers troubleshoot issues with their cloud infrastructure.
In March, Amazon had revealed its plans to cut around 9,000 jobs from its cloud services, advertising and Twitch units as recession fears loom. The announcement was made by CEO Andy Jassy via a memo to staff mere weeks after the company laid off around 18,000 employees.
Jassy had said that the company had added substantial amount of staff in the past few years, but the uncertain economy had forced it to choose cost and headcount cuts.
“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,” he had said in his memo, published later to Amazon’s corporate blog.
“Some may ask why we didn’t announce these role reductions with the ones we announced a couple months ago. The short answer is that not all of the teams were done with their analyses in the late fall; and rather than rush through these assessments without the appropriate diligence, we chose to share these decisions as we’ve made them so people had the information as soon as possible,” Jassy was quoted as saying by AP.
In April, Amazon.com Inc. had laid off about 100 employees in its video-game divisions as part of its broader cutbacks, affecting workers at Prime Gaming, Game Growth and the company’s San Diego studio.
