Amazon layoffs continue, now 100 employees from its video games unit fired

Layoffs continued at Amazon this week with 100 employees from the company's video games unit losing their jobs. The news comes weeks after Amazon announced a second round of mass layoffs, piling on to a wave of job cuts that has swept the technology sector as a rough economy forces companies to get leaner.

Job cuts within Amazon have so far affected more than 27,000 people. The company had announced plans to lay off 18,000 people in November last year. This was followed in late March by a second round of layoffs involving 9,000 people. The 9,000 job cuts, which will be completed by mid to late April.

According to a CNBC report, the latest layoffs include staffers from the Game Growth group (the Amazon gaming studio in San Diego) as well as individuals working with Prime Gaming.

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The report quoted Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann to add that some employees had been ‘reassigned’ to other projects matching the company's strategic focus. The laid off employees would be granted severance pay, health insurance benefits, outplacement services and paid time to carry out job searches.

“As we’ve just concluded the second phase of our operating plan (OP2) this past week, I’m writing to share that we intend to eliminate about 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT (People, Experience, and Technology), Advertising, and Twitch. This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.

More to come…