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Amazon is planning to cut nearly 10% of its corporate workforce beginning Tuesday as part of an internal restructuring, Reuters reported, citing three sources.
The reported layoffs, affecting roughly 30,000 employees, would mark the largest reduction in Amazon’s corporate workforce in the company’s history, surpassing the roughly 27,000 positions eliminated in late 2022 and early 2023, according to layoff tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
Sources told Reuters that Amazon has been working to reduce expenses and correct overhiring that took place during the pandemic’s surge in demand.
The cuts may impact several divisions, including Human Resources, known as People Experience and Technology, Operations, Devices and Services and Amazon Web Services, the outlet reported.
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Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. (Mike Segar/Reuters)
Managers of affected teams were required to complete training on Monday to prepare for communicating with staff, following email notifications set to go out Tuesday morning, sources said, according to Reuters.
Amazon has previously explored several strategies to reduce its workforce, including enforcing a strict return-to-office policy, launching a program identifying inefficiencies and integrating artificial intelligence technologies, according to the outlet.
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Workers at an Amazon office in Bellevue, Washington, on July 18, 2024. (Grant Hindsley/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
Earlier this year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy launched an initiative to reduce the number of managers by creating an anonymous complaint line to identify inefficiencies, Reuters reported. The program generated roughly 1,500 responses and led to more than 450 process changes, Jassy said, according to the outlet.
A full-time return-to-office mandate also took effect this year. Amazon likely hoped that the strict policy would prompt some employees to resign voluntarily, reducing headcount without severance costs, sources told Reuters. However, the policy reportedly did not produce enough departures, contributing to the need for a larger round of layoffs.
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Andy Jassy, chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., speaks during a summit in San Francisco, on June 8, 2022. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
Jassy said in June that the growing use of artificial intelligence tools was expected to also drive job cuts.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy previously said about Generative AI.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 226.97 | +2.76 | +1.23% |
As of Monday, more than 200 tech companies had eliminated roughly 98,000 positions this year, according to Layoffs.fyi.
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While Intel has cut 27,000 employees, Microsoft laid off 15,000, Salesforce reduced its workforce by more than 9,000, Meta eliminated roughly 4,000 jobs and Google cut 200 positions this year, according to the site.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX Business.
FOX Business’ Pilar Arias and Reuters contributed to this report.
