Amazon, Google CEOs 'hint' at more layoffs amid economic downturn

As tech layoffs continue unabated in 2023, Amazon and Google CEOs have hinted at more layoffs as the companies continue to evaluate business.

In a letter to company shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that they reprioritised where to spend resources, which ultimately led to the hard decision to eliminate 27,000 corporate roles.

"There are a number of other changes that we've made over the last several months to streamline our overall costs, and like most leadership teams, we'll continue to evaluate what we're seeing in our business and proceed adaptively," the Amazon CEO wrote.

Jassy said that the company had to conduct a thorough analysis of each business and invention within the company to determine whether they had strong potential to generate revenue, operating income, free cash flow, and return on invested capital in the long run.

Meanwhile, Pichai said that the company is "literally looking at every aspect of what we do" in an effort to re-engineer its cost base permanently.

In a recent interview with Wall Street Journal, the Alphabet and Google CEO said: "We are trying to accomplish that across many different ways. We're literally looking at every aspect of what we do, and as we said on our last earnings call, we're thinking about how to re-engineer our cost base in a durable way.

"We are definitely being focused on creating durable savings. We are pleased with the progress, but there's more work left to do," he was quoted as saying.

Google had in January laid off 12,000 employees in its first round of layoffs.

"We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We've already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices," Pichai had said in a statement.

Amazon initially eliminated 18,000 positions in January, saying that as "we completed the second phase of our planning this month, it led us to these additional 9,000 role reductions".

In March, the e-commerce giant announced to lay off another 9,000 employees in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Twitch, advertising, and HR.