Reuters Last week, Amazon first reported that Amazon is planning a second round of job cuts as part of CEO Andy Jassy’s broader goal, which has sought to cut red tape and leave underperforming companies behind.
Amazon said it would close its remaining brick-and-mortar supermarkets and Go Markets, despite years of efforts, and said it would drop its Amazon One biometric payment system, which scans a customer’s palm.
While 30,000 employees represent a small portion of Amazon’s 1.58 million employees, who are mostly in fulfillment centers and warehouses, it is almost 10 percent of the company’s workforce. This represents the largest job losses in 30 years, surpassing the 27,000 it recorded between late 2022 and early 2023.
The job cuts were necessary to strengthen the company by “reducing layers, increasing ownership and eliminating bureaucracy” at Amazon, its top HR executive, Beth Galetti, said in a message.
Galetti left open the possibility of further cuts, saying some teams “will continue to make adjustments as necessary.”
The latest cuts mark the second major round of layoffs in three months after Amazon cut 14,000 jobs in October, saying at the time that artificial intelligence and concerns about its changing corporate culture were to blame.
Amazon has also said it hired too many workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, when demand for online shopping skyrocketed.
“Some of you may be wondering if this is the start of a new rhythm – announcing major reductions every few months,” Galetti said in the note. “That’s not our plan,” she said.
‘Project Dawn’
A day earlier, Amazon accidentally sent an email to some Amazon Web Services employees that appeared to refer to the layoff plan as “Project Dawn,” upsetting thousands of employees.
The full extent of the cuts could not be determined, but employees from multiple AWS units, Alexa voice assistant, Prime Video, devices, advertising and last mile delivery, among others, indicated online and in emails Reuters that they were affected.
Other roles involved include those in Kindle and supply chain optimization, a group within Amazon’s fulfillment unit.
Amazon, which began its corporate job cuts by announcing plans to close its Fresh and Go stores, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The job losses also underscore how artificial intelligence is changing the dynamics of companies’ workforces.
Significant advancements in AI assistants are helping companies perform tasks from routine administrative tasks to complex coding problems with high speed and precision, driving widespread adoption.
Jassy said last summer that the increasing use of AI tools would lead to more automation of tasks, leading to job losses at companies.
Executives at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos last week said that while jobs would disappear, new ones would be created. Reuters that AI would be used as an excuse by companies that still want to cut jobs.
Tech giants including Amazon, Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Microsoft have ramped up workforces amid pandemic demand and have been restructuring lately. UPS, Pinterest and ASML all announced staff cuts in recent days.
Amazon has invested in robotics in its warehouses to speed up packaging and deliveries for its e-commerce segment, reduce dependence on human labor and lower costs.
#Amazon #cutting #jobs #drives #efficiency