Amazon is expected to lay off up to 30,000 employees starting Tuesday, October 28, the largest cut in its history, in its latest move to reduce costs and save money.
The cuts would represent about 10% of the online giant's corporate workforce, according to the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The layoffs will be among office employees, known in the United States as "white-collar" employees, and are expected to encompass the entire organization, affecting human resources, cloud computing, advertising, and various other business units. The final number of cuts is not yet determined, according to sources cited by the WSJ.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been campaigning to cut expenses as the company ramps up investments in artificial intelligence in the face of growing competition in the cloud computing business.
In June, Jassy sent a memo to employees stating that the increased use of artificial intelligence will eliminate the need for certain jobs. He called generative AI a unique technological shift that is already altering how Amazon interacts with consumers and other businesses, and how it conducts its own operations, including job cuts.
“As we implement more generative AI and agents, this should change how our work is done,” he said at the time. “It’s difficult to know exactly where this will play out over time, but in the coming years, we expect it to reduce our total corporate workforce.”
In 2022, Amazon eliminated approximately 27,000 jobs in waves of layoffs. Amazon is expected to release its third-quarter financial results on October 30th.
