Unlucky Amazon workers could have to start looking for a new job, as the retail giant has announced a huge wave of redundancies.

The company will fire more than 18,000 staff around the world, marking the biggest round of redundancies in its history.

CEO Andy Jassy sent a note to employees this week pinned the blame on what he called an 'uncertain economy', and that staff across its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores will be those most affected.

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The number of jobs cut may seem small relative to Amazon's 1.5 million strong global workforce, but the news will likely come as devastating to those who face the sack.

Amazon will reportedly tell affected staff from January 18th onwards, and plans to offer severance payments, job placement support, and transitional health benefits.

Mr Jassy said: "These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure."

He added that the announcement had been made earlier than planned after an employee leaked the details late last year.

The job cuts come as Amazon faces slower growth this year due to inflation, which is forcing business and consumers to cut back on their spending.

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The firm hired thousands of staff during the pandemic in order to deliver products to people stuck at home, but is now being forced to reduce this number.

It means the retail giant will join the likes of Microsoft, Google and Facebook in firing thousands of staff, as the tech sector grapples with plummeting share prices.

Last year, Meta (owner of Facebook) announced 11,000 job cuts, while Google is expected to ditch 6% of its workforce.

According to Layoffs.fyi, the tech industry as a whole cut 150,000 jobs in total in 2022, a number that's only set to increase in 2023 as major tech companies look to cut their budgets.

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