Amazon is set to eliminate as many as 30,000 corporate positions beginning Tuesday, affecting roughly 10% of its 350,000-office employee workforce. This represents the company’s largest job reduction since late 2022, when it cut approximately 27,000 positions.
The layoffs are part of an ongoing effort to streamline operations and curb costs following an overexpansion during the pandemic, sources familiar with the matter explained. Divisions likely to be affected include human resources, operations, devices, services, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Managers in impacted units received training on Monday on how to communicate the changes to staff ahead of emails scheduled for Tuesday.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has emphasized reducing bureaucratic layers as a key goal, citing the need for a more efficient corporate structure. Earlier this year, Jassy highlighted the potential for artificial intelligence to automate repetitive and routine tasks, suggesting that AI-driven productivity gains could support a substantial workforce reduction. “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, noted.
Despite the cuts, Amazon continues to expand in other areas. The company plans to hire 250,000 seasonal workers for the holiday period, with 8,500 of those positions going to New Yorkers, according to the Democrat and Chronicle. Amazon employs roughly 1.2 million workers in the United States, and the corporate job reductions represent only a small fraction of its overall workforce.
The latest layoffs follow a program earlier this year aimed at returning employees to the office five days per week, one of the tech industry’s most stringent policies. Some employees who did not comply with office attendance requirements were treated as having voluntarily resigned, thereby saving the company money.
Financially, Amazon continues to report growth in its cloud business, although AWS’s second-quarter sales of $30.9 billion, a 17.5% increase, lagged behind competitors Microsoft and Alphabet. The company also experienced a roughly 15-hour internet outage last week, affecting worldwide services. Shares rose 1.2% on Monday ahead of the company’s third-quarter earnings report scheduled for Thursday.
