Jan 5 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's layoffs will
now include more than 18,000 roles as part of a workforce
reduction it previously disclosed, Chief Executive Andy Jassy
said in a public staff note on Wednesday.The layoff decisions, which Amazon will communicate starting
Jan. 18, will largely impact the company's e-commerce and human
resources organizations, he said.The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon's roughly 300,000-person
corporate workforce and represent a swift turn for a retailer
that recently doubled its base pay ceiling to compete more
aggressively for talent.They also show how layoffs continue to shake the technology
sector. Amazon's layoffs now surpass the 11,000 cuts announced
last year by Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc,
underscoring the retailer's slide from an essential business
moving goods during pandemic lockdowns, to a company that
overbuilt for demand.Its stock fell more than 1% on Thursday and is half the
price it was a year ago.Amazon has more than 1.5 million workers including warehouse
staff, making it America's second-largest private employer after
Walmart Inc. Jassy indicated its cuts extend to Europe.Jassy said in the note that annual planning "has been more
difficult given the uncertain economy and that we've hired
rapidly over the last several years."The reductions will bring Amazon's corporate workforce
closer to September 2021 levels, when it told Reuters this
headcount numbered around 275,000 people globally.For months the company has braced for likely slower growth
as soaring inflation encouraged businesses and consumers to cut
back spending. U.S. retailers overall saw a smaller rise in
online sales this holiday season, with a recent measure of
consumer prices up about 7% from a year earlier.Amazon began letting staff go in November from its devices
division, with a source telling Reuters at the time it was
targeting around 10,000 cuts.The tech industry shed more than 150,000 workers in 2022,
according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi, a number that is
continuing to grow. On Wednesday, Salesforce Inc also
said it planned to eliminate about 10% of staff, which numbered
nearly 8,000 as of Oct. 31.Jassy's note followed a report in the Wall Street Journal
that the reduction would be more than 17,000 jobs. He said
Amazon chose to disclose the news before informing affected
staff because of a leak.Amazon still must file certain legal notices about mass
layoffs, and it plans to pay severance.Jassy said: "Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult
economies in the past, and we will continue to do so."A spokesperson for London-based trade union GMB said it was
aware of the reduction, but its members would not be affected.Those belonging to the union who work at the Amazon
warehouse in Coventry, central England, are planning to stage a
walkout on Jan. 25 over a pay row with the e-commerce giant.Douglas Harper, a spokesperson for Spain's largest trade
union CCOO, criticized what he said was a total lack of
information from the company."We don't know how this will affect us in Spain," Harper
told Reuters. Most Amazon employees do not have union
representation.Read more:FACTBOX-Tech firms leading job cuts in Corporate AmericaBREAKINGVIEWS-Amazon -- it’s just like them(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Uday Sampath in
Bengaluru, Muvija M in London, David Latona in Madrid and
Tassilo Hummel in Paris; Editing by Kim Coghill, Jan Harvey and
Lisa Shumaker)