Amazon fires another one 9,000 employees, with senior management citing “the uncertain economy we live in”.

The cuts come from its cloud company Amazon Web Services (AWS), streaming platform Twitch and its advertising division.

This latest round of layoffs comes just two months after Amazon said it would more than cut spending 18,000 rolls which largely focused on the company’s e-commerce and human resources departments.

In a message to staff posted on Amazon’s website, CEO Andy Jassy echoed his colleagues’ words when he described the layoffs as “a difficult decision”.

Jassy said Amazon had decided to be “more streamlined in our costs and workforce” as the retail giant appears to be “leaner” this year.

“I remain very optimistic about the future and the myriad of opportunities we have, both in our largest businesses, stores and AWS, as well as our newer customer experiences and companies we invest in,” he said.

“To those ultimately affected by these cuts, I want to thank you for the work you have done on behalf of customers and the company. It is never easy to say goodbye to our teammates and we will miss you.”

After criticism that Amazon could have announced the full string of 27,000 layoffs together in January, Jassy said that “not all teams were done with their analyses” and that even this round of layoffs is unlikely to be completed until the end of April.

Earlier this month, Amazon interrupted construction of the second headquarters in the US state of Virginia, a huge campus with three 22-story office buildings that were to be the workplace of more than 14,000 employees.

Amazon is trying to get its employees back to the office after the pandemic caused the company to shift to remote working.

In a memo to staff Starting in February, Jassy said, starting in May, staff are expected to be “in the office together most of the time,” or at least three days a week.

He said observations of various operating models showed Amazon’s leadership that it was “easier to learn, model, practice and reinforce corporate culture,” easier to collaborate and invent, and that teams “have the tend to be better connected” when they are in the office.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a similar sentiment last week when he announced it cut another 10,000 jobs throughout his company, encouraging his staff “to find more opportunities to work personally with your colleagues.”

For Elon Musk, who in many ways was the first to cut jobs when he acquired the social media platform Twitter late last year and immediately laying off staff, the end of a remote work policy was a way to further thin his workforce.

Musk told staff in his first meeting with all hands follow his tumultuous takeover that “if people don’t return to the office when they can return to the office, they can’t stay with the company”.