Amazon also plans to cut jobs in the coming year

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Amazon Echo system: Expectations of this division not met

Photo: Elaine Thompson/ dpa

Twitter does it, Facebook's mother Meta does it - now Amazon too: The tech company is parting with staff on a large scale.

After the world's largest online mail order company started the most comprehensive job cuts in the company's history this week, boss Andy Jassy is already preparing the employees for further job cuts.

The board's personnel planning will continue into the coming year, which means that there will be further job cuts, Jassy explained in a memo to the employees published on the website.

It was "without a doubt the most difficult decision" in his approximately one-and-a-half-year tenure as CEO of Amazon.

Jassy did not provide any information on the exact extent of the layoffs.

According to consistent reports, the group started cutting around 10,000 jobs this week.

Amazon recently had around 1.5 million employees worldwide, most of them working in the delivery and warehousing infrastructure.

Deficient AI: Alexa and Amazon Echo weaken

The most recent job cuts primarily affect the loss-making device division for Echo smart speakers and the Alexa language assistant program.

Previously, there were extensive job cuts at the Facebook and Instagram mother Meta and the online network Twitter, which was taken over by Tesla boss Elon Musk.

US media have been reporting for some time that Amazon wants to cut around ten thousand jobs.

The company remained silent for days.

In the meantime, however, a top manager has confirmed that a number of "Amazonians" will lose their jobs.

Dave Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of Devices & Services, reached out to employees in his department to justify the job cuts.

he referred to an “unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment”.

“After a thorough review, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs.

One of the consequences of these decisions is that some functions are no longer needed.

It pains me to deliver this news as we know we will lose talented Amazonians from the Devices & Services organization as a result.”

The affected employees were personally notified this week.

Limp explained that they would support each individual and help them find a new job.

Employees who can no longer be employed at Amazon should receive a package of severance pay, transitional benefits and external support with job placement.

Around 1.6 million people work at Amazon worldwide, most of them in the logistics centers of the online retail giant.

The division that takes care of the voice assistant Alexa, the smart Echo loudspeakers and artificial intelligence applications is particularly affected by the cuts.

According to estimates by industry insiders, this area is in deficit.

So far, the expectations of the Amazon leadership that online orders will increasingly be processed via Alexa and an Echo device have not yet been fulfilled.

apr/dpa