Amazon in November last year said it would cut around 10,000 roles. Followed an internal review, this number has now increased to 18,000 CEO Andy Jassy said. The company had wanted to keep the information secret until it had begun talks with staff, but an external leak prompted it to disclose the news.

“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” said Jassy in a statement on 5 January. “We intend on communicating with impacted employees (or where applicable in Europe, with employee representative bodies) starting on January 18.”

A spokesperson for Amazon in Luxembourg contacted about the potential impact of the decision on Luxembourg referred Delano to the CEO’s message.

Amazon is one of Luxembourg’s largest employers with more than 4,000 staff. Between the end of 2021 and November last year, the company grew its Luxembourg office by 10%, it said on its website.

The majority of layoffs announced on Thursday are expected in the Amazon Stores and the People, Experience and Technology (PXT) teams.

Tech industry woes

“These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure,” Jassy said. “Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year.”

Amazon employs 1.5m people in its warehouses and corporate offices.

Net profit at the company dropped 9% between the third quarter of 2022 and the year before, after record profits in the 2021 pandemic year.

The company isn’t the only tech business reshaping its workforce. Facebook parent Meta said it would slash 11,000 jobs. At Snapchat, 1,200 employees, around 20% of staff, faced the chop. IT group Salesforce said it would let go 10% of its workforce, around 8,000 people, while Elon Musk after his takeover of Twitter cut an estimated half of its global 7,500 staff.