Employees from several divisions of Amazon are currently being sacked. The firing fever will continue in 2023 as the annual planning process extends into the new year, revealed CEO Andy Jassy.   

“This year's review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we've hired rapidly the last several years," said Jassy.

While the exact numbers are unknown, reports suggested 10,000 employees, or 3 per cent of Amazon’s workforce will be laid off.

"We communicated the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organisation," Jassy further said.

"I've been in this role now for about a year and a half, and without a doubt, this is the most difficult decision we've made during that time," the Amazon CEO added.

An internal mail was also sent to the employees by senior vice president of Devices and Services, Dave Limp, saying that "after a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programmes".

"One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required. In cases where employees cannot find a new role within the company, we will support the transition with a package that includes a separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support," Limp wrote.

On Tuesday, several employees were told they had two months to find another job internally or accept severance payment. Employees reacted harshly to the decision.

"I don't even know if I want to work for this company anymore. This is a horrendous way to treat people," Amazon’s senior manager said. "The truth of the matter is that if the company was more transparent, we wouldn't have this shitshow. Now you have most of the population wondering if they are next," another senior company manager told Recode.

Besides Amazon, Meta, Disney, Twitter and several other tech companies around the world announced thousands of job cuts as part of their cost-cutting efforts.