âSome roles will no longer be required.â | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Amazon is cutting jobs in its devices and services division, SVP Dave Limp said in an email to employees on Wednesday.
âAfter a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs,â Limp wrote. âOne of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required.â Amazon will provide support for those affected by the cuts, and if somebody canât find a new role internally, the company will provide a severance package with âa separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support,â according to Limp.
In an email to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt didnât share exactly how many people would be impact but did say the changes will affect a very small percentage of the overall team.
The cuts are unfortunately not a total surprise, as The New York Times reported Monday that the company was planning to lay off about 10,000 jobs this week. The layoffs reportedly began on Tuesday, and employees working on Alexa and Amazonâs Luna cloud gaming service were among those affected, CNBC said. However, Schmidt confirmed that Amazon is still committed to Luna, meaning it isnât exiting cloud gaming like Googleâs Stadia. âWe continue to believe that streaming will transform gaming as it has many other categories, and we remain excited about the future of Luna,â Schmidt said.
Amazon is just the latest big tech company to make sweeping job cuts in recent weeks. Meta said on November 9th that it would be laying off 11,000 employees, and Snap said in August that it was cutting 20 percent of its staff. Twitterâs new owner Elon Musk laid off about half its staff, cut thousands of contractors, and now is asking employees to commit to an âextremely hardcoreâ culture or leave the company. Even Apple is affected by the more challenging economic environment, as CEO Tim Cook said in an interview that the company would be slowing some hiring.