Amazon plans to eliminate 18,000 corporate and technology jobs in a significant expansion of its cost-cutting plans, the company’s chief executive, Andy Jassy, said in an email to employees on Wednesday.

The company previously planned to lay off roughly 10,000 employees late last year and early this year, The New York Times reported in mid-November. The first layoffs were focused on the company’s devices and books organisations. Employees in human resources were also given buyout offers to resign.

The new wave of layoffs will begin on January 18, Jassy said, and will focus on human resources as well as the large division that Amazon refers to as Stores. That includes the teams behind Amazon’s main online site, its vast field operations and warehouses, its physical stores and other consumer teams.

The 18,000 in total cuts represent 6 per cent of Amazon’s corporate work force. Late last year, managers in a variety of groups said they had been asked to prepare for potential layoffs, and employees have been bracing for the cuts.

Hourly warehouse workers are not included in the layoffs. Amazon has typically reduced those jobs through high attrition.

“These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure,” Jassy wrote. “However, I’m also optimistic that we’ll be inventive, resourceful and scrappy in this time when we’re not hiring expansively and eliminating some roles.”

The company more than doubled its work force during the pandemic as customers flocked to online services. It had about 1.5 million employees at the end of September.

Amazon’s growth, however, slowed to its lowest rate in two decades, and Jassy has been reeling in the company’s overexpansion. Amazon recently cautioned investors that growth could weaken to its slowest pace since 2001.

Jassy said the expanded reductions were the result of Amazon’s annual business review, which this year “has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years.”

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Wednesday that Amazon had expanded its planned job cuts. Amazon is among a number of tech companies that have recently announced significant cuts.

New York Times News Service