The company will cut an additional 9,000 workers

As we just finished Phase 2 of our Operational Plan (“OP2”) last week, I’m writing to share with you that we plan to cut about 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks – mostly at AWS, PXT, advertising, and Twitch. This was a difficult decision, but we believe it’s what’s best for the company in the long run.

Let me share some additional context.

As part of our annual planning process, leaders across the company work with their teams to identify the investments they want to make in the future, prioritizing what is most important to customers and the long-term health of our business. For several years prior to that, most of our businesses added a significant amount of headcount. That made sense given what was happening in our business and the economy as a whole. However, due to the uncertain economy we live in, and the uncertainty that exists in the immediate future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount. The overriding principle in our annual plan this year has been to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to continue to invest aggressively in key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve the lives of customers and Amazon as a whole.

As our internal business assessed what clients cared about most, they made re-prioritization decisions that sometimes led to downsizing roles, sometimes led to moving people from one initiative to another, and sometimes led to new opportunities where we didn’t have the right skills match. of our current team members. This initially led us to cut 18,000 jobs (which we shared in January); And after we completed Phase 2 of our planning this month, that led us to further cuts of $9,000 (although you’ll see limited hiring in some of our strategic areas as we prioritized allocating more resources).

Some may ask why we haven’t announced these cuts in roles with the one we announced two months ago. The short answer is that not all teams’ analyzes were completed in late fall. Rather than rush into these assessments without due diligence, we have chosen to share these decisions as we made them so that people get the information as quickly as possible. The same is true for this note as the affected teams have not yet finished making final decisions on exactly which roles will be affected. Once these decisions are made (our goal is to complete this by mid to late April), we will communicate with affected employees (or where appropriate in Europe, with representative bodies of employees). Of course, we will support those we have to let go, providing packages that include severance payments, transitional health insurance benefits, and overseas employment support.

If I go back to our belief — to be leaner while doing it in a way that enables us to continue to invest aggressively in key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve the lives of customers and Amazon as a whole — I think the outcome from this year’s planning cycle is a plan that achieves this. the goal. I remain very optimistic about the future and the countless opportunities we have, both in our largest businesses, stores and AWS, and newer customer experiences and the companies we’re investing in.

For those ultimately affected by these cuts, I want to thank you for the work you have done on behalf of the customers and the company. It’s never easy to say goodbye to our teammates, and we will miss you. To those who will continue with us, I look forward to partnering with you as we make life easier for customers every day and are relentlessly innovating to do so.

dew