Amazon is set to unveil significant job reductions starting Tuesday, according to CNBC’s sources.
The layoffs are anticipated to be the most extensive reductions in Amazon’s corporate staff to date, affecting nearly all sectors of the business, based on information from an insider who wished to remain anonymous due to the confidential nature of the details.
The notification regarding the layoffs is likely to be communicated to employees via email Tuesday morning, as noted by the individual.
The corporation aims to let go of as many as 30,000 employees within its corporate divisions, as reported by Reuters, which initially broke the story.
Amazon has refrained from providing any comments.
Amazon ranks as the second-largest private employer in the country, boasting over 1.54 million employees worldwide by the conclusion of the second quarter, mainly comprising its warehouse staff. The workforce also includes approximately 350,000 corporate personnel.
The forthcoming layoffs would signify the largest workforce reductions in the tech sector since at least 2020, according to Layoffs.fyi. As reported on Monday, more than 200 technology firms have dismissed around 98,000 individuals since the year’s commencement, as tracked by the platform that monitors employment cuts in the tech industry.
Microsoft has terminated approximately 15,000 employees this year, while Meta recently dismissed around 600 positions within its AI division. Google removed more than 100 design jobs within its cloud division earlier this month, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff confirmed in September that the firm laid off 4,000 support staff, attributing the necessity for cuts to increasing AI integration. Intel‘s reductions this year reached 22,000, the highest among those documented by Layoffs.fyi.
The most significant year for job reductions in the tech field occurred in 2023, during which the industry faced rampant inflation and elevated interest rates. Close to 1,200 tech firms reduced over 260,000 jobs, according to the site.
Throughout the past year, businesses across various sectors including technology, finance, automotive, and retail have cited the emergence of generative AI as a factor likely to influence or already modifying the size of their workforces.
Amazon has implemented ongoing layoffs throughout the organization since 2022, resulting in over 27,000 job eliminations. Workforce reductions have persisted this year, albeit on a smaller scale. Job cutbacks have affected Amazon’s cloud, retail, communications, and devices units in recent months.
The job reductions form part of a wider cost-reduction strategy initiated by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Jassy has also worked on simplifying Amazon’s corporate framework by reducing the number of managers to “eliminate layers and streamline organizations.”
In June, Jassy stated that Amazon’s workforce could further diminish due to the company’s adoption of generative AI, informing employees that “we will require fewer individuals performing some tasks currently being carried out, and more personnel undertaking different types of roles.”
“It’s challenging to determine precisely where this will lead in the long run, but we anticipate that this will lower our total corporate workforce over the next few years,” Jassy remarked in the June correspondence to staff.
WATCH: Report: Amazon targets as many as 30,000 corporate job cuts beginning Tuesday
