March 21, 2023: On Monday, Amazon will remove 9,000 more workers in the coming weeks, CEO Andy Jassy stated in a memo to staff.

The slashes are on top of the announced layoffs that started in November and extended into January. That round totalled more than 18,000 workers and primarily affected staffers in its retail, devices, recruiting and human resources people.

Amazon decided to lay off more employees as it looks to streamline costs. The firm just wrapped up the second area of its annual budgeting process, which is referred to internally as “OP2.” It took into account the economy and the “uncertainty that exists shortly,” Jassy said.

“The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that allows us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole,” Jassy stated.

The recent round will primarily impact Amazon’s cloud computing, human help, promotion, and Twitch live-streaming businesses, Jassy said in the memo.

Amazon is experiencing the most extensive layoffs in company history after it went on a hiring spree during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company’s international workforce swelled to over 1.6 million by the end of 2021, increasing from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Jassy is undergoing a broad overview of the firm’s expenses as it reckons with an economic downturn and a slowing increase in its core retail business. Amazon froze to hire its corporate workforce, axed a few experimental projects and slowed warehouse expansion.

While the firm aims to operate leaner this year, Jassy remains optimistic about its “largest businesses,” retail and Amazon Web Services, and other new divisions it continues to invest in.