Major Job Reductions Expected
Reports indicate that Amazon wants to let go of as many as 30,000 workers, making this one of the largest job cuts seen in this calendar year. If true, this cutting amount would mark Amazon's largest layoff since 2022, when about 27,000 workers were let go over a period of months. The layoffs could include up to 10% of the company's corporate workforce, and although this is a large cut, it is just a small portion of Amazon's total workforce of over 1.5 million workers worldwide.
The corporate workforce is defined to include executives, managers, and salespeople, and Amazon's stated corporate workforce is estimated to be about 350,000 based on data given by Amazon to the US government last year. The specific locations of layoffs have not yet been disclosed.
Reasons for Layoffs: Like other technology companies, Amazon hired quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic to accommodate the increased demand for e-commerce and digital services. However, with the normalization of the market, Amazon is prioritizing efficiency and cost savings.
Under Andy Jassy's guidance, Amazon has been able to cut costs while also making large investments into artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to increase productivity. In June, Jassy noted that those advances in AI will probably make changes to jobs, saying, "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs."
The upcoming reductions reflect the company's agenda of streamlining operations and reallocating funding into emerging technologies, such as AI, automation, and cloud computing.
