THE buzz from the rapid mass hiring Amazon did during the pandemic has finally come crashing down with their latest announcement. 

The company is laying off 18,000 workers, a lot more than the 10,000 they previously announced last November. This is due to “the uncertain economy” according to the company.

“Between the reductions we made in November and the ones we’re sharing today, we plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles,” said CEO Andy Jassy in a statement to his staff. 

The reason for what appeared to be a sudden announcement was an external leak from “one of our teammates” he said. 

Jassy said that the leadership is aware of the impact on people who will be affected  by these “role eliminations”.

And are taking steps in making sure they are provided “packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support,” he added. 

The CEO also said that there will be job cuts also in Europe and the workers will be informed of these developments by January 18.

The number of global employees doubled between the start of 2021 and until the start of 2022 due to the unprecedented demand during the pandemic. 

Amazon had 1.54 million employees globally by the end of September last year which does not include seasonal workers hired for the holidays. 

The tech sector workforce has been deeply affected by redundancy announcements  these recent months as other big companies like Meta, Snapchat, Twitter, Salesforce, HP have gone through deep cuts in this economic downturn.