Report: Amazon plans to cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs

• This marks Amazon’s largest job reduction since 2022, when it cut about 27,000 roles.
• Increased use of AI tools is expected to automate routine work and drive further cuts.
• The layoffs follow a recent AWS outage that disrupted major platforms, including Roblox, Fortnite, and WhatsApp.

Amazon is reportedly planning to lay off up to 30,000 corporate employees starting this week. 

As reported by Reuters, the company wants to reduce expenses and correct what has been referred to as overhiring that occurred during the pandemic’s high-demand period.

Bloomberg, meanwhile, reports that Amazon's games division is also set to be hit by job losses.

The new round of layoffs is expected to impact multiple areas, including human resources, operations, devices and services, and Amazon Web Services. The latter recently faced a global outage that impacted a variety of online services, including top games, platforms and websites.

The layoffs are expected to affect about 10% of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate workers, though only a small portion of its 1.55 million total workforce. 

It would be the company’s largest round of cuts since late 2022, when 27,000 jobs were eliminated.

AI replacing routine tasks 

Over the past two years, Amazon has made smaller job cuts across divisions such as devices, communications, and podcasting. 

Managers of affected teams have received training on how to inform staff of layoffs, with email notifications set to begin Tuesday, October 28th. 

Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy is leading efforts to cut staff and streamline management. In June, Jassy said the company's growing use of artificial intelligence would likely lead to more job cuts by automating so-called repetitive and routine tasks.

The exact scale of Amazon’s latest layoffs remains uncertain, with sources noting the number could fluctuate as financial priorities evolve.