Over the past few days, Amazon has been headlining many headlines. The main reason is the wave of layoffs of more than 9,000 employees, of which 400 have been from Twitch.
The streaming platform owned by Amazon has been quite affected by this staff cut, where a large number of employees have had to leave their jobs.
Round of layoffs at Amazon affects Twitch
The current economic situation affects many companies; this time, it has touched Amazon, which has been forced to lay off thousands of people.
The consequences of the layoffs have strongly affected Amazon’s streaming platform. Twitch’s CEO, Dan Clancy, reported that about 500 workers must leave their jobs.
All work departments at Twitch have had to make staff cuts, from the human resources department and some advertising divisions to other areas of the company. This layoff round started a few days after the previous CEO, Emmett Shear, resigned.
According to information revealed by Polygon, none of the workers who were laid off received a prior announcement. The workers experienced the layoffs with anguish and did not know if they would be affected.
Two employees anonymously told a media outlet that all Twitch employees were very confused by the news about the layoffs given by Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon.
Apparently more layoffs at Amazon, these ones appear to also impact Twitch (which so far has only experienced HR layoffs, and allowed attrition losses.)#TwitchNews pic.twitter.com/Ka07OCPgfv
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) March 20, 2023
Announcement of the layoffs
Through an email sent by Dan Clancy to Twitch workers who would be affected by the wave of layoffs.
In the email, Clancy apologized for being informed about the layoffs without first talking to the people affected. But they did so because it was necessary to confirm the happening situation.
The reason given to the employees who were affected by the layoffs is that it is due to the current economic crisis. Specifically, they explain that the growth of users and the return of benefits are not as expected and do not meet the expected goals.
On the other hand, Clancy adds that the company had to make this sad decision to maintain a sustainable operating business.
Amazon executives have not yet made any statements confirming the total number of people laid off.
In the statement made by Amazon, they only express that the company is focusing on building a strong community; they also add that the decision the layoffs were not an easy one to make.
Amazon has had two waves of layoffs; the first confirmed around 18,000 people laid off. These layoffs were mainly focused on Amazon Stores. However, the total number of layoffs in this second round is not known at this time.