Amazon is set to lay off up to 30,000 corporate positions starting on Tuesday, as the company reduces costs and addresses overstaffing that occurred during the pandemic’s peak demand, according to a Reuters report.
This number represents a small fraction of Amazon’s total workforce of 1.55 million employees, but it accounts for nearly 10% of its approximately 350,000 corporate staff. This will be Amazon’s largest job reduction since late 2022, when it initiated the elimination of about 27,000 roles.
Reports say that the layoffs will impact areas such as people experience, technology, devices and services, and operations. Teams involved in communications, Alexa, podcasting and Amazon Web Services are also likely to be affected.
Managers from the affected teams were instructed to participate in training on Monday regarding how to communicate with employees following the announcements, Reuters reported.
Over the past two years, Amazon has been reducing smaller quantities of jobs across various divisions, including devices, communications, and podcasting.
Interestingly, Amazon has recently formed a new team focused on frontier AI & robotics (FAR), located in San Francisco and Seattle, aimed at creating robotic foundation models that encompass advanced reasoning and comprehension alongside dexterity and mobility.
Rocky Duan, a senior principal applied scientist at Amazon, said the team is actively recruiting for various positions, including full-time roles and internships in software engineering and research.
In June, AIM indicated that Amazon is preparing for substantial changes within its workforce as Generative AI increasingly becomes a core element of the organisation. In a communication to employees, CEO Andy Jassy noted that as AI assumes more responsibilities, the nature of jobs at Amazon will evolve, potentially leading to a reduction in overall corporate positions.
Additionally, several technology firms have recently been laying off workers. Just last week, Meta reportedly let go of several hundred employees as part of a broad internal restructuring aimed at optimising operations.
Approximately 600 positions were eliminated across Meta’s FAIR AI research, product AI, and AI infrastructure teams, even as the company intensifies its focus on the newly established TBD Lab.
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