Amazon targets as many as 30,000 corporate job cuts, sources tells Reuters

This Sept. 6, 2012, file photo, shows the Amazon logo. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning on Tuesday, as the company works to pare expenses and compensate for overhiring during the peak demand of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10 per cent of the company’s roughly 350,000 corporate employees. This would represent the largest job cut at Amazon since around 27,000 jobs were eliminated starting in late 2022.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.

Amazon has been trimming smaller numbers of jobs over the past two years across multiple divisions, including devices, communications, podcasting and others. The cuts beginning this week may impact a variety of divisions within Amazon, including human resources, known as People Experience and Technology, devices and services and operations, among others, the people said.

Managers of impacted teams were asked to undergo training on Monday for how to communicate with staff following email notifications that will start going out on Tuesday morning, the people said.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is undertaking an initiative to reduce what he has described as an excess of bureaucracy at the company, including by reducing the number of managers. He installed an anonymous complaint line for identifying inefficiencies that has elicited some 1,500 responses and over 450 process changes, he said earlier this year.

Jassy said in June that the increased use of artificial intelligence tools would likely lead to further job cuts, particularly through automating repetitive and routine tasks.

“This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realizing enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force,” said Sky Canaves, an eMarketer analyst. “Amazon has also been under pressure in the short-term to offset the long-term investments in building out its AI infrastructure.”

The full scope of this round of job cuts was not immediately clear. The people familiar with the matter said the number could change over time, as Amazon’s financial priorities shift. Fortune earlier reported that the human resources division could be targeted with a cut of roughly 15 per cent.

Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech job cuts, estimated that about 98,000 jobs have been lost so far this year among 216 companies. For all of 2024, the figure was 153,000.

Amazon’s largest profit center, cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services, reported sales in the second quarter of US$30.9 billion, a 17.5 per cent increase that was well below the sales gains for Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud, which gained 39 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively. Google Cloud is owned by Alphabet.

Estimates indicate that AWS will have boosted third-quarter sales by about 18 per cent to $32 billion, a slight slowdown from last year’s 19 per cent increase. AWS is still reeling from a roughly 15-hour internet outage last week that felled many of the most popular online services, like Snapchat and Venmo.

Indications are that Amazon is expecting another big holiday selling season. The company said it plans to offer 250,000 seasonal jobs to help staff warehouses, among other needs, the same as in the prior two years.

Amazon shares were up 1.3 per cent at $227.11 near the close of trading on Monday. The company plans to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Greg Bensinger, Reuters