Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate workers as the company works to pare expenses and compensate for overhiring during the peak demand of the pandemic, multiple media outlets have reported.
If confirmed, the layoffs could be one of the largest seen in recent months. It would be Amazon’s biggest cuts since 2022, when the company let go of around 27,000 workers over several months.
Although the figure represents a small percentage of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10% 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.
Amazon’s layoff plans were also reported by CNBC and the New York Times, citing sources familiar with the matter. The reports did not say where in the world job cuts will be made.
The number of potential layoffs would be around 10% of the company’s corporate headcount, but still a small fraction of Amazon’s total workforce, which has more than 1.5 million employees across its warehouses and offices worldwide.
The company has around 350,000 corporate workers, which include those in executive, managerial and sales roles, according to figures that Amazon submitted to the US government last year.
Amazon hired a lot of workers during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet the surge in demand for online deliveries and digital services.
Amazon CEO is tackling 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.
Mr Jassy said in June that the increase in AI tools will likely lead to job cut as machines take over routine tasks.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” he said then.
Amazon shares were up 1.2% at $226.80 on Monday afternoon. The company plans to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
