​Amazon, which began a series of layoffs on Wednesday, will continue its cuts in the first months of 2023, the company’s chief executive said. The various divisions are now being assessed, but no figures have been released. Sources cited by the American press said 10,000 people.

Amazon’s market cap fell below $1 trillion after hovering near $1.5 trillion in August 2022. The peak was in July 2021: $1.88 billion.

While 10,000 people doesn’t mean a lot percentage-wise for a giant organization like Amazon, the message is powerful because Amazon has never had a downsizing campaign like this. On the contrary: the number of employees constantly increased by tens and even hundreds of thousands per year.

This was also a problem for the big tech companies: they grew too fast and didn’t anticipate that the amazing growth from the pandemic would NOT last forever.

At Amazon, the layoffs will target lower-margin divisions such as Devices and Books. Profits also declined in the company’s two main lines of business: e-commerce and Amazon Web Services.

How the number of Amazon employees increased (statistics)

2007: 17,000

2011: 56,000

2016: 341,000

2019: 798,000

2021: 1.6 million

Sources: Reuters, Axios

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