US e-commerce giant Amazon will begin laying off 30,000 employees across its global offices on Tuesday. The US media reported this on Monday. The company is thus implementing its CEO Andy Jassy’s plan to reduce costs while accelerating investments in artificial intelligence.
The job cuts will represent about 10 percent of the Seattle-based company’s approximately 350,000 office workers. However, according to local media, the distribution centers will not be affected. The majority of Amazon’s more than 1.5 million employees work there.
The layoffs are focused on employees in support or strategic roles. These include, among others, the human resources department, advertising and senior managers.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request from the AFP news agency for comment on the job cuts. Media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times had previously reported on it, citing anonymous sources.
US media cited various reasons for the wave of layoffs. It is the largest since the winter of 2022/2023, when 27,000 jobs were cut. A course correction after the numerous new hires during the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the reasons.
According to the US press, the first letters of termination are expected from Tuesday. More are expected to follow in January, after the peak of business around the end-of-year holidays.
However, the final number of people who will lose their jobs at the e-commerce giant has not yet been determined. This is reported by the New York Times, citing an anonymous source.
In June, Jassy had already announced that the development of generative AI would “reduce the workforce in offices in the next few years (…)”.
“Rising prices, a tighter labor market and the uncertainties of President Trump’s trade war have led business owners to look for ways to tighten their belts without hurting growth,” analyzes the Wall Street Journal.
Questions about the future of employees also arise in the logistics centers, where Amazon is accelerating automation through robots and AI. The company is the second largest employer in the United States with 1.2 million employees.
Other American technology giants are also seeing significant layoffs of office workers. Microsoft announced in July that it would expand its plan to an estimated 15,000 job cuts.
Meta laid off around 600 people from its AI department on Wednesday, following an extensive hiring drive.
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