Amazon to cut 16,000 jobs globally in fresh round of lay-offs

Amazon plans to cut about 16,000 jobs globally as part of efforts to streamline its operations amid “rising competition over AI”. The latest round of lay-offs at the retail technology giant, confirmed in a blog post to staff, comes only months after it axed about 14,000 jobs.Beth Galetti, senior vice-president of people experience and technology at Amazon, wrote: “As I shared in October, we’ve been working to strengthen our organisation by reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy.
Galetti said U.S.-based staff would be given 90 days to look for a new role internally. Those who are unsuccessful or don’t want a new job will be offered severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits. The layoffs are Amazon’s biggest since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs. Amazon employs a total of about 1.57 million people, most of whom are in the warehouse. The corporate workforce is about 350,000. The announcement came after the company appeared to have prematurely alerted Amazon Web Services cloud computing employees about lay-offs planned for Wednesday morning by sending a commiseration email and team-wide meeting invitation hours early. Last year, the company’s president Andy Jassy suggested Amazon was likely to reduce its staff count over the coming years as it increases its use of AI for many tasks.