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Amazon is preparing to cut as many as 30,000 corporate roles beginning on Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter quoted by news agency Reuters, as the company continues to rein in costs after expanding rapidly during the pandemic. The cuts would amount to nearly 10% of Amazon's roughly 350,000 corporate employees, though they represent a small fraction of its total global workforce of 1.55 million. The move would mark Amazon's largest round of layoffs since late 2022, when around 27,000 jobs were eliminated. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. Over the past two years, Amazon has implemented smaller job reductions across several divisions, including devices, communications, podcasting and human resources. The latest cuts are expected to affect multiple parts of the company, including People Experience and Technology (its human resources division), devices and services, and operations, the sources said. Managers in affected teams were reportedly asked to complete training on Monday on how to communicate the changes to staff. Notifications to impacted employees are expected to begin via email on Tuesday morning. Chief Executive Andy Jassy has been leading efforts to simplify operations and reduce what he has described as excess bureaucracy. Earlier this year, Jassy said he had set up an anonymous internal complaint line for employees to flag inefficiencies, which led to 1,500 submissions and more than 450 process changes. In June, Jassy also said the growing use of artificial intelligence tools would likely result in further job cuts, particularly in roles involving repetitive or routine tasks. The scale of this latest round of layoffs could still change, depending on Amazon's shifting financial priorities, the sources said. According to Fortune, the human resources division may face a reduction of about 15%. Amazon shares rose 1.2% to $226.80 on Monday afternoon. The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
