Amazon Lays Off Workers in Its Book Division, According to Leaked Email The move impacted Amazon's Goodreads site and Kindle division.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- Amazon cut dozens of jobs in its books division this week.
- The cuts affected fewer than 100 employees and were intended to make Amazon more efficient.
Tech job cuts have impacted over 62,000 workers so far this year, according to tracker Layoffs.fyi. Now Amazon is laying off workers in its books business, per a leaked internal email obtained by Business Insider earlier this week.
"Today, we are taking the very difficult step of eliminating some roles on your team," a senior Amazon manager stated in the email. "Unfortunately, your role has been eliminated."
The email informed impacted employees that they would receive full pay and benefits for the next 60 days, or 90 days for employees who reside in New York or New Jersey, plus additional severance.
The cuts, which Reuters reported affected fewer than 100 employees, were intended to improve efficiency. The reductions affected employees working on Amazon's Goodreads review site as well as its Kindle division. Amazon acquired Goodreads in 2013 for $150 million.
"As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our business roadmap, we've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles within the Books organization," an Amazon spokesperson stated, per Reuters.
Amazon.com began as an online bookstore in the early 1990s when the company sold its first book online: Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. Within its first month of launch, Amazon had sold books to customers in all U.S. states and 45 countries.
In the first 10 months of 2022, Amazon sold $16.9 billion worth of books globally.
Related: 'Difficult Decision': Amazon Announces a New Round of Layoffs. Here Are the Roles Affected.
Now, Amazon generates about $28 billion annually from global book sales and offers more than 20 million titles in the U.S. alone. Amazon controls half or more of the U.S. market for print book sales and at least 75% of ebook sales.
Amazon has let go of roughly 27,000 employees since the beginning of 2022 to cut costs. The company announced last month that it would cut 100 jobs in its devices and services department, which includes Ring doorbells and the Alexa voice assistant. In January, the retail giant made dozens of job cuts in its communications and sustainability departments.
