Amazon deepens tech gloom as 503 firms lay off 1.5 lakh employees

As Amazon deepened the tech gloom by firing another 9,000 employees after previously sacking 18,000, over 500 companies have laid off nearly 1.5 lakh workers to date this year.

According to the latest data from layoff.fyi, a website that is tracking tech sector job cuts, 503 tech companies have laid off 148,165 employees to date.

After a dismal year for tech companies and startups in 2022 which saw at least 1.6 lakh employees being shown the door, 2023 started on a similar note.

About 1,046 tech companies – from Big Tech to startups – laid off more than 1.61 lakh employees last year.

In January alone, close to 1 lakh tech employees lost jobs globally, dominated by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others.

Companies in the US cut 77,770 jobs in February, compared to 102,943 in January, with technology companies continuing to lead the layoff race, cutting 21,387 jobs last month, accounting for 28% of all cuts.

Last week, Meta Founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced to sack an additional 10,000 employees via several job cut rounds in the coming months.

The fresh cuts come just four months after he laid off 11,000 employees, or 13% of the company, in November last year.

Zuckerberg said that after restructuring, Meta plans to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a blog post on Monday that the tech major will slash another 9,000 jobs in the next few weeks

Jassy, in an email to staff, cited “uncertain economy” and “rapid hiring” as reasons behind the job cuts.

“As we’ve just concluded the second phase of our operating plan (“OP2”) this past week, I’m writing to share that we intend to eliminate about 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch,” he said in the post.

Jassy added that they did not announce the latest cuts in January, because not all of the teams were done with their analyses in late fall, he said. “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,” he said.

The company’s internal businesses evaluated what customers most care about and made “re-prioritization decisions” that sometimes led to role reductions, moving people from one initiative to another, and to new openings, he said in the blog post.