According to informed sources, Amazon (AMZN.O) plans to begin laying off up to 30,000 corporate jobs starting Tuesday, in an effort to cut expenses and offset over-hiring during the demand surge of the pandemic.
Amazon currently has a global workforce of approximately 1.55 million employees, of which 350,000 are corporate staff. This round of layoffs is Amazon’s largest since 2022, when the company cut 27,000 positions.
Over the past two years, Amazon has already cut small numbers of employees across various divisions, including Devices, Communications, and Podcasting. Sources indicate that the layoffs beginning this week may impact multiple departments, including Human Resources, Operations, Devices and Services, and AWS.
Sources state that managers of the affected teams were asked to undergo training on Monday to learn how to communicate with employees starting Tuesday when email notifications will be sent.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is pushing an initiative to reduce what he calls excessive bureaucracy, including trimming the number of managers. He said earlier this year that he set up an anonymous complaint hotline to identify inefficiencies, which has received about 1,500 responses and led to over 450 process changes.
Jassy stated in June that the wider adoption of Artificial Intelligence tools could lead to further job cuts, particularly in repetitive and routine tasks.
eMarketer analyst Sky Canaves commented that the move suggests Amazon may have achieved enough AI-driven productivity gains within its corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force.
The full scope of this round of layoffs is not yet clear. Sources indicated that the number may change over time as Amazon’s financial priorities shift. Fortune previously reported that the Human Resources department could be a target, with a potential reduction of around 15%.
