Amazon Prepares Second Round of Corporate Job Cuts as Workforce Reduction Nears 30,000
GeokHub
SAN FRANCISCO | Jan 2 (GeokHub) Amazon is preparing to carry out a second wave of corporate job cuts next week, as part of a broader plan to eliminate roughly 30,000 white-collar roles, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The layoffs could begin as early as Tuesday and are expected to be similar in scale to cuts announced in October, when the company eliminated about 14,000 corporate positions, roughly half of the total reduction target first reported by Reuters. The sources requested anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the company’s plans.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
Units Affected, Scope Still Unclear
The planned cuts are expected to affect staff across several major divisions, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), the core retail business, Prime Video, and the company’s human resources unit, known internally as People Experience and Technology, the sources said.
They cautioned that details of the restructuring could still change.
If completed as planned, the total reductions would represent nearly 10% of Amazon’s corporate workforce, though only a small fraction of its overall 1.58 million employees, most of whom work in warehouses and fulfillment centers.
The move would mark the largest layoff in Amazon’s three-decade history, surpassing the roughly 27,000 jobs cut in 2022.
AI and Culture Drive Restructuring
Amazon previously linked its October layoffs to the growing impact of artificial intelligence, saying in an internal memo that the technology was enabling companies to innovate faster than ever before.
However, Chief Executive Andy Jassy later downplayed AI as the main driver, telling analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings call that the cuts were “not really financially driven and not even really AI-driven.”
Instead, Jassy cited internal culture and excessive bureaucracy.
“You end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers,” he said.
Jassy has previously warned that Amazon’s corporate workforce would shrink over time as the company gains efficiency from AI tools, including software that writes code and automated agents that handle routine tasks.
Amazon showcased its latest AI models at its annual AWS cloud computing conference in December, underscoring its push to embed automation across operations.
Transition Period Ending
Employees affected by the October layoffs were kept on payroll for 90 days, during which they could seek internal roles or external opportunities. That transition period expires on Monday, just ahead of the expected new round of cuts.
