Amazon confirmed 16,000 corporate job cuts, completing around 30,000 planned layoffs since October and signaling the possibility of further reductions.
The cuts represent nearly 10% of Amazon’s corporate workforce and include its largest layoff round in company history, greater than the 27,000 jobs cut in late 2022 and early 2023.
The big picture: CEO Andy Jassy is focused on reducing bureaucracy and shedding underperforming businesses to strengthen the company.
- Amazon is closing its remaining Fresh grocery stores, Go markets, and dropping the Amazon One biometric payment system that scanned customers’ hands.
Driving the news: The layoffs are partly attributed to overhiring during the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing impact of artificial intelligence and automation on corporate roles.
- Improvements in AI assistants are enabling automation of tasks from administration to complex coding, prompting the cuts.
Go deeper: Some layoffs were internally referenced as “Project Dawn,” according to a mistakenly sent email to Amazon Web Services (AWS) staff.
- Impacted employees span AWS units, Alexa, Prime Video, devices, advertising, and last mile delivery, among others.
- Industry-wide, other tech firms like Meta, Microsoft, UPS, Pinterest, and ASML are also announcing substantial staff reductions.
- Amazon is expanding robotics in its warehouses to speed deliveries, further reducing reliance on human labor and cutting costs.
