Following a trend in the tech industry, Amazon has fired an additional 9,000 employees today, according to Bloomberg. Moreover, the news comes after Facebook-parent company, Meta, laid off 10,000 employees in a second round of job cuts, after already firing 11,000 months prior.
Amazon has joined a long list of companies in the tech sector that have executed abundant firings. From Twitter to Meta, the online leader in consumer goods sales has followed a trend likely connected to the uncertainty in the country’s economic status.
Amazon Follows Job-Cutting Trend
The year has been a horrendous one for those in the finance sector. Moreover, as 2022 saw the Federal Reserve execute a year of interest rate hikes to combat inflation, and the banking sector on the edge of crisis the last few weeks, the tech industry has continued its relentless job cuts.
Now, Amazon has fired 9,000 employees in the latest development within the industry. The uniform nature of the job cuts points to a systemic problem within the industry, as Fox reported that companies hired rapidly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, with interest rates now affecting the bottom line, firings have become a staple of 2023.
That same Fox report noted Amazon had previously stated its intention to lay off more than 18,000 employees in its most significant job cuts. Moreover, the company reportedly started cutting its workforce on Jan. 18 of this year.
According to the report, the job cuts “mostly impact the company’s Amazon Stores division, ” including its various brick-and-mortar locations. Subsequently, other functions like its human resources departments have seen multiple cuts.
The company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, previously warned employees of impending layoffs in November. Now, we are seeing the fruits of those initial warnings in the active firings. Conversely, Jassy stated they were to occur due to the uncertain economic developments of the country and previous rapid hirings.