E-commerce giant Amazon plans a second round of job cuts next week as part of its broader aim to lay off about 30,000 corporate employees, two sources told Reuters.
The company cut about 14,000 jobs in October, about half of the 30,000 initially announced, Reuters reported. The total number of layoffs is expected to be roughly the same as last year, and layoffs could begin as early as Tuesday. This was said by the sources, who requested anonymity, as they are not authorized to discuss Amazon’s plans,” BTA informed.
A spokesperson for the American company declined to comment, reports.
According to the sources, the cuts will affect jobs in the retail divisions Amazon Web Services (Amazon Web Services), Prime Video (Prime Video) and human resources, known as People Experience and Technology (People Experience and Technology). The sources cautioned that details of Amazon’s plans could change.
Corporations are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to write programming code to develop software and deploy AI agents that automate routine tasks as they seek to save costs and reduce reliance on humans. Amazon touted its latest AI models at its annual cloud computing (AWS) conference in December.
The 30,000 job cuts would be a small fraction of Amazon’s 1.58 million employees, but nearly 10 percent of the company’s corporate workforce. The majority of Amazon employees are in fulfillment centers and warehouses.
This would be the largest cut in Amazon’s 30-year history. The company has cut about 27,000 jobs in 2022.
Affected workers were told in October that they would remain on pay for 90 days, during which they could apply for another job with the company or look for new jobs. This period ends on Monday (January 26).
