Amid layoffs, Amazon to reduce employee stock awards

Amazon has already conducted two waves of layoffs across the company but it is still not done with cost-cutting measures. The e-commerce giant has announced plans to reduce employee stock awards as part of its compensation plan.

A report by Reuters has confirmed that the company has decided to decrease RSU (restricted stock units) awards by a small amount for the final outlook year, but not for other years. The changes are part of its strategy to navigate an uncertain economy.

This news comes just a few weeks after Amazon announced a second round of mass layoffs, adding to the wave of job cuts that have hit the technology sector due to the economic downturn. In the first round, Amazon decided to let go of 18,000 employees and in the second round in March, the company decided to reduce the workforce by 9,000.  

Amazon is reportedly considering adjusting its compensation model in the future to be more balanced between base cash compensation and equity.

Despite the layoffs and the uncertain economy, Amazon's shares have gained over 20 per cent this year, following a nearly 50 per cent drop in 2022. 

Tech Layoffs

Tech layoffs have impacted almost all top companies in the sector. Google's parent company Alphabet decided to remove 12,000 positions earlier this year. Meta announced 11,000 job cuts in the first wave of layoffs and 10,000 jobs in the second. Amazon-rival recently announced 2,000 job cuts and micro-blogging platform Twitter has laid off more than half its workforce in the second half of last year. 

Also read: 'Never a pleasant way to share this news': Amazon lays off 100 employees from gaming division

Also read: Apple layoffs: After Google, Amazon, Meta the iPhone maker may start laying off employees