Amazon Health Services is cutting “a few hundred” employees from its One Medical chain and Amazon Pharmacy, the company announced Tuesday, marking the latest round of job cuts after a brutal 2023 for one of the nation’s largest private employers.
The latest round of cuts was announced in an internal memo Tuesday.
Forbes obtained a copy of the internal memo from Amazon Health Services’ Senior Vice President Neil Lindsay, which said the layoffs will impact “a few hundred roles” in the One Medical chain, a “membership-based primary care practice” comprised of in-person and virtual care services which Amazon acquired for $3.9 billion last February, and Amazon Pharmacy.
Lindsay told employees the retailer “identified areas where we can reposition resources” to make investments in “invention and experiences” that directly impact customers and members.
According to Lindsay, the retailer’s health care businesses have seen “tremendous growth,” with Amazon Clinic seeing a “96% customer satisfaction rating”—adding that the company will “continue our mission to make health care simpler" in a statement to Forbes.
Those impacted by the layoffs will receive “financial support, benefit continuation, and career assistance” throughout the transition, and “an opportunity to apply for new roles in the organization,” Lindsay said.
Over 27,000. That’s how many employees Amazon and its subsidiaries have laid off since the start of 2023. Amazon employed 1.5 million full- and part-time employees as of the third quarter in 2023, according to Statista.
On Tuesday, Docusign also announced it was laying off about 6% of its workforce, or around 440 employees, as part of a restructuring plan. Amazon is one of many companies that have announced rolling layoffs to cut costs over the past couple of years, reversing pandemic-era hiring, which resulted in a near 200% increase in layoffs in 2023.
Amazon alone laid off more than 27,000 workers last year, after announcing it would cut 18,000 employees in late 2022 and another 9,000 in early 2023. This year has seen several rounds of smaller layoffs thus far, as the retailer has already announced hundreds of cuts to its Twitch, Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions. Audible, an Amazon subsidiary, also cut more than 100 employees in early January. The layoffs come as the company attempts to cut costs and recover from overexpansion incurred during the pandemic, the New York Times reported. The tech giant experienced its best profits since 2021 in its 2023 third quarter earnings report, which saw $143.1 billion in revenue—beating estimates of $141.5 billion.
The U.S. economy is booming. So why are tech companies laying off workers? (The Washington Post)
DocuSign to lay off 6% of workforce, or about 440 jobs (CNBC)
Amazon Is Laying Off Hundreds Of Twitch, Prime Video And MGM Studios Employees (Forbes)