According to Reuters, Amazon is planning to potentially lay off at least 30,000 corporate jobs. The move comes as the company looks to adjust for overspending during the pandemic, and could represent a downsizing of 10% of its corporate employees.
Reuters also says that this would be Amazon’s largest job cut since late 2022, when around 27,000 positions were eliminated.
Over the last few years, Amazon has cut jobs in on a smaller scale in certain divisions. Devices, communications and podcasting were some of the areas to see cuts previously, and these new layoffs could affect divisions like human resources, operations, devices, services and Amazon Web Services.
Amazon’s Continued Focus on AI
A source told Reuters that the managers of affected teams received instruction and training on how to communicate with their staff, and email notifications were sent to staff on Tuesday.
“After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we’ve made the hard business decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon,” the message from CEO Andy Jassy reads.
The company will offer a non-working period to severed employees with full pay and benefits, skills training and external job placement support.
In June, Jassy noted that the emergence and extended use of AI would likely lead to a loss in jobs, and it seems that his prediction was accurate.
As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,” Jassy said to staff in a memo over the summer.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”
Amazon’s Plan For Seasonal Workers
eMarketer analyst Sky Canaves says the continued use and reliance on AI is likely directly related to the reduction in workforce at Amazon.
“This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realizing enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force,” Canaves said, per Reuters.
“Amazon has also been under pressure in the short-term to offset the long-term investments in building out its AI infrastructure.”
The company may be introducing more layoffs to the corporate sector, but it plans to add jobs to offset the pressure of the holiday rush.
Earlier this month, Amazon said that it would be hiring 250,000 seasonal workers to staff its warehouses, among other similar needs. This aligns with their seasonal hiring practices over the last two years, adjusting for a higher level of demand at the end of the year.
