Amazon is planning to trim its workforce in Canada, Costa Rica, and the United States. According to a memo sent to staff, the tech giant is planning to lay off 18,000 employees.
Amazon plans to lay off staff
The technology sector in the United States has been affected by many layoffs. The companies operating in the sector have been forced to reduce their costs to reverse the effects of the COVID pandemic. Additionally, there have been concerns about the global economic situation, which could affect the financial position of these companies.
Amazon will be letting go of 2,300 employees in Bellevue and Seattle per an update released on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) website. According to US labor laws, companies planning to conduct mass layoffs must inform their employees 60 days before the action happens.
The Chief Executive at Amazon, Andy Jassy, commented on the development earlier this month saying that the layoffs, representing around 6% of the company’s total workforce of 300,000 corporate employees, would largely affect the e-commerce and the human resources divisions at the firm.
Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 employees
Microsoft has said it will cut off 10,000 jobs and get a $1.2 billion charge on its earnings. The cloud-computing company is also planning to reassess the spending of the firm as the company gets ready for a possible recession in the economy. The recession has also been predicted by the World Bank.
The layoffs at the company have added to the tens of thousands of people that have been let go by technology companies globally. During the pandemic, tech firms such as Microsoft witnessed robust growth. However, the poor macro environment seen in 2022 and the rising interest rates triggered a drop in their growth.
Despite the layoffs, Microsoft is expanding its interest in artificial intelligence. The AI space has seen renewed interest, and the tech giant is now diversifying into the sector. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, tried to explain the focus that the company was making to address the diversification of the business.
Nadella said customers planned to optimize their digital spending by spending less to achieve more. Customers were also exercising caution because some countries were already in a recession while others were expecting to enter a recession. He added that the next step in computing was advancement in the AI sector.
According to Nadella, the layoffs that have happened at the company have affected less than 5% of the workforce at Microsoft. The layoffs are expected to end by the end of March. Notifications for the same will start being sent on Wednesday.