Amazon plans fresh job cuts next week as corporate layoffs near 30,000

Amazon is preparing to carry out a fresh round of corporate job cuts next week, potentially eliminating thousands of roles as part of a broader plan to reduce its white-collar workforce by about 30,000, according to people familiar with the matter.

The layoffs, which could begin as early as Tuesday, are expected to be similar in scale to cuts announced in October, when Amazon eliminated around 14,000 corporate roles, roughly half of the overall reduction target first reported by Reuters. The sources requested anonymity, as they were not authorised to speak publicly.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. The upcoming cuts are expected to affect employees across Amazon Web Services, the company’s retail business, Prime Video, and its human resources unit, known internally as People Experience and Technology, though the final scope could still change, the sources said.

More from Business

US, China seal TikTok deal after yearslong battle, algorithm control still unclear: Report London sky goes grey: Soaring energy prices bring back firewood in chimneys in UK homes

Amazon previously linked the October layoffs to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, saying in an internal communication that AI was enabling faster innovation and operational efficiency. However, chief executive Andy Jassy later played down AI as the primary driver, telling analysts that the cuts were “not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven.”

“It’s culture,” Jassy said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, arguing that Amazon had accumulated too many layers of management and excessive bureaucracy over time. “You end up with a lot more people than what you had before,” he said.

Quick Reads

View All

Can Vande Bharat be a model for the world? India’s bet on affordable modern rail

China rolls out $72 bn loan backstop, but can it revive its flagging private sector?

Jassy has previously indicated that Amazon’s corporate workforce would continue to shrink gradually as efficiencies from AI tools increase. Like many large corporations, Amazon has been deploying AI to automate routine tasks, including software development, as part of broader cost-saving efforts. The company showcased its latest AI models at its annual AWS conference in December.

If completed, the full 30,000 job cuts would account for nearly 10 per cent of Amazon’s corporate workforce, though they would represent only a small fraction of its total global headcount of around 1.58 million employees, most of whom work in warehouses and fulfillment centers.

The move would mark the largest round of layoffs in Amazon’s history, surpassing the roughly 27,000 jobs cut in 2022. Employees affected in the October round were kept on payroll for 90 days to allow time to seek internal transfers or external roles, a grace period that expires on Monday.