Amazon retrenches 9,000 employees, including those in Singapore

Amazon has started laying off employees in its cloud services division this week as part of a retrenchment exercise that was announced on March 20. The exercise is expected to affect about 9,000 employees including those in Singapore which is one of the largest rounds of retrenchments the company has undergone. 

The exercise was first announced in March by Amazon's chief executive Andy Jassy in an internal message that was later posted to the company's blog. In his post, Jassy said that following the conclusion of the second phase of its operating plan, that it intends to eliminate about 9,000 more position in the coming weeks. He clarified that these positions would mostly be in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch.

"As part of our annual planning process, leaders across the company work with their teams to decide what investments they want to make for the future, prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses," he wrote, adding that for several years leading up to this one, most of our businesses added a significant amount of headcount.

"This made sense given what was happening in our businesses and the economy as a whole. However, given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount," he continued. 

Don't miss: Amazon to cut 18,000 jobs amidst tech layoffs, eCommerce teams impacted 

As of October 2021, Amazon has about 2,000 full-time and part-time employees in Singapore, according to media reports. It is unclear how many staff from the local office have been affected at this time. 

In an internal note to employees that was reported on by The Straits Times, AWS chief executive Adam Selipsky said that they began notifying those who were being laid off on Wednesday. 

Notifications were sent to all impacted employees in the United States, Canada and Costa Rica and in other regions, local processes were being followed. This included consultations with employee representative bodies, according to the memo. 

In the note, Selipsky said that it was working hard to "treat everyone impacted with respect" and to provide resources and touchpoints to help with the transition. This reportedly includes a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits and external job placement support.

The news comes as Amazon reported a better-than-expected revenue for its first quarter ended 31 March 2023. According to the results by Amazon, net sales increased 9% to $127.4 billion in the first quarter, compared with $116.4 billion in first quarter 2022. Operating income also increased to $4.8 billion in the first quarter, compared with $3.7 billion in first quarter 2022.

In particular, AWS segment sales increased 16% year-over-year to $21.4 billion.

"Our advertising business continues to deliver robust growth, largely due to our ongoing machine learning investments that help customers see relevant information when they engage with us, which in turn delivers unusually strong results for brands," said Jassy. "We like the fundamentals we’re seeing in AWS, and believe there’s much growth ahead.”

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