Amazon cuts 16,000 jobs as corporate workforce shrinks by nearly 10%

Amazon has cut about 16,000 corporate jobs, bringing total layoffs to roughly 30,000 since October, Reuters reported. The company said further reductions remain possible.

The company recently closed its remaining brick-and-mortar Fresh grocery stores and Go convenience markets and dropped its Amazon One biometric payment system, which used palm scans for payments.

While the layoffs account for a small share of the company’s global workforce of about 1.58 million, most of whom work in fulfillment centers and warehouses, they represent nearly 10% of its corporate staff. The cuts are the largest in Amazon’s history, exceeding the roughly 27,000 jobs eliminated between late 2022 and early 2023.

The reductions were intended to strengthen the company by “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said in a blog post. She added that some teams may continue to “make adjustments as appropriate.”

The latest layoffs mark the second major round of cuts in three months, following the elimination of about 14,000 jobs in October. The company has said it overhired during the COVID-19 pandemic, when online shopping demand surged, and has also pointed to AI and cultural shifts as factors behind the changes.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm - where we announce broad reductions every few months,” Galetti said in a note. “That’s not our plan,” she said.

Reuters reported that Amazon mistakenly sent an internal email referring to the layoffs as “Project Dawn” to some Amazon Web Services employees, unsettling workers across several units.

The job cuts come as AI reshapes corporate workforces, with executives acknowledging that automation could lead to fewer corporate roles.