Copyright independent
Amazon is reportedly set to eliminate up to 30,000 corporate roles, with job cuts anticipated to begin on Tuesday. The e-commerce giant aims to pare expenses and address overhiring during the pandemic's peak demand, according to three sources familiar with the matter. This figure, while a small fraction of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, represents nearly 10 percent of its approximately 350,000 corporate staff. Such a reduction would be the largest at Amazon since late 2022, when 27,000 jobs were eliminated. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. Amazon has been trimming smaller numbers of jobs over the past two years across multiple divisions, including devices, communications, podcasting and others. The cuts beginning this week may impact a variety of divisions within Amazon, including human resources, known as People Experience and Technology, devices and services and operations, among others, the people said. Managers of impacted teams were asked to undergo training on Monday on how to communicate with staff following notifications that will start going out via email on Tuesday morning, the people said. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is undertaking an initiative to reduce what he has described as an excess of bureaucracy at the company, including by reducing the number of managers. He installed an anonymous complaint line for identifying inefficiencies that has elicited some 1,500 responses and over 450 process changes, he said earlier this year. Jassy said in June that the increased use of artificial intelligence tools would likely lead to further job cuts, particularly through automating repetitive and routine tasks. The full scope of this round of job cuts was not immediately clear. The people familiar with the matter said the number could change over time, as Amazon's financial priorities shift. Fortune earlier reported that the human resources division could be targeted with a cut of roughly 15%. Amazon shares were up 1.2 percent at $226.80 on Monday afternoon. The company plans to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
