Amazon layoffs continue, this time fires employees in AWS and HR department

By Divya BhatiOn Wednesday, Amazon began its second round of layoffs, which the company announced last month. This new round of job cuts will impact approximately 9,000 employees across various departments, starting with its cloud service operation and human resources divisions.

The layoffs come as Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s most profitable division, experiences slowing sales growth. According to the notification about the layoffs, job losses at AWS will be spread globally, starting with personnel in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica. Impacted employees were notified of the layoffs early Wednesday by CEO Adam Selipsky and Human Resources Head Beth Galetti.

“It is a tough day across our organisation” AWS chief Adam Selipsky said in an internal memo obtained by CNBC. “Difficult decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon globally, including within AWS, and the conversations with impacted AWS employees started today, with notification messages sent to all impacted employees in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica,” he added.

“We are working hard to treat everyone impacted with respect, and to provide a number of resources and touchpoints to aid in this transition. This also includes packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support,” Selipsky further wrote in the memo to Amazonians.

In March, CEO Andy Jassy announced 9,000 job cuts, in addition to the 18,000 eliminations already announced last November and in January. On April 18th, as part of this plan, Amazon reduced its workforce by letting go of several employees in its advertising unit to cut costs.

Due to concerns about a recession, Amazon began cutting costs by freezing hiring, stopping some projects, and slowing warehouse expansion. CEO Andy Jassey in his note last month said that given the uncertain economy and the “uncertainty that exists in the near future,”Amazon has chosen to be more streamlined.

Notably, just like other big tech heads like Facebook’s parent company Meta and Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon also increased hiring during the pandemic to meet the growing demand from homebound Americans shopping online. In the meantime, The AWS division also experienced a massive boost during the pandemic, benefiting Amazon and other cloud providers as companies, government agencies, and schools accelerated their transition to the cloud.

“However, in recent months, both AWS and ads have experienced slowing growth due to companies reducing their spending in a challenging economic environment. As a result, the company decided to take drastic cost-cutting measures, including reducing its workforce. Some teams within AWS were included in the earlier round of layoffs.

“Given [our] rapid growth, as well as the overall business and macroeconomic climate, it is critical that we focus on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities-those things that matter most to customers and that will move the needle for our business,” Selipsky further notes in the memo. “In many cases this means team members are shifting the projects, initiatives or teams on which they work; however, in other cases it has resulted in these role eliminations.”

“We are focused on continuing to innovate in the areas that matter most to our customers as we help them minimise expense, innovate rapidly, and transform their organisations,” Selipsky added.

Selipsky stated that job cuts outside North America would follow local processes, including consultations with employee groups where required by law. Some AWS teams, including recruiters and members of the “Just Walk Out” technology group, were already impacted by layoffs.

The first rounds of cuts mainly affected recruiting and HR teams, the retail group, and devices teams. On Wednesday, more cuts were made to the HR group, which has faced buyout offers and cuts since November. Beth Galetti, head of the People Experience and Technology team (HR), announced the latest cuts in an email on Wednesday, acknowledging the impact on those leaving and remaining employees.

“These decisions are not taken lightly, and I recognize the impact it will have across both those transitioning out of the company as well as our colleagues who remain,” HR head Beth Galetti further informed the Amazonians.

Amazon shutting down Halo division

On a related note, Amazon announced another big decision on Wednesday and informed about the closure of its Halo division that sells health and sleep trackers. Amazon has announced that it will stop supporting Halo services from July 31st and will refund Halo device purchases made in the previous 12 months. The company has notified impacted employees in the US and Canada, but the number of affected employees has not been specified.

The Halo division was launched in 2020 with the introduction of the original Halo band, a fitness tracker that provided access to health monitoring and analysis services. The division later released two additional products, Halo View and Halo Rise, a contactless sleep tracker and a smart alarm clock, respectively.