A new report claims that Amazon may cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs as the e-commerce company attempts to reduce expenses.
According to Reuters, three people familiar with Amazon’s job reduction plans told the outlet that the job cuts, which started this week, come after the company hired too many employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outlet noted that Amazon currently has over 1.5 million employees, including 350,000 corporate jobs.
Reuters reported that a job reduction of 30,000 employees would be the largest job cut the company has made since 2022, when the e-commerce company cut 27,000 positions. According to Reuters, the three anonymous sources said the job cuts could impact multiple divisions, including operations, human resources, Amazon Web Services, and devices and services.
“This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realizing enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force,” Sky Canaves, an eMarketer analyst, stated. “Amazon has also been under pressure in the short-term to offset the long-term investments in building out its AI infrastructure.”
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According to Reuters, Amazon instructed team leaders affected by the planned job cuts to conduct a communication training with staff members after the positions are eliminated. The outlet noted that emails were expected to be sent to affected employees starting on Tuesday.
In a Tuesday message to employees, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience, announced “organizational changes” for the company.
“It will mean an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles,” Galetti said. “We’re working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted, including offering most employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (the timing will vary some based on local laws), and our recruiting teams will prioritize internal candidates to help as many people as possible find new roles within Amazon.”
“For our teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we’ll offer them transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, and more,” Galetti added.
Last week, the New York Times reported that Amazon plans to replace roughly 500,000 jobs with robots. The outlet also reported that Amazon’s robotics team wants to eventually have 75 percent of operations automated.
