Amazon outlines new job cuts, internal search period and benefits

Amazon said it will cut about 16,000 corporate jobs in a second round of layoffs announced Wednesday, coming roughly three months after the company disclosed cuts affecting 14,000 workers in October. The company said it plans to use generative artificial intelligence to replace corporate workers, while also reducing a workforce that had grown during the pandemic.

Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon, wrote in a blog post Wednesday that the company is “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy.” The company did not say what business units would be affected or where the job cuts would occur.

Timing and eligibility for internal roles

Galetti said some Amazon units completed the organizational changes referenced when cuts were announced in October, while others did not finish until now. She said U.S.-based staff will be given 90 days to look for a new role internally.

Galetti added that those who are unsuccessful in finding a new position, or who do not want one, will be offered severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits.

Continued hiring and investment, Amazon says

Galetti said, “While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future.” The company’s leadership has previously connected future staffing changes to generative AI.

CEO Andy Jassy anticipated in June that generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the next few years, according to the report. The layoffs announced Wednesday are described as Amazon’s biggest since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs.

State warning notices not yet reported

California’s workforce agency said Wednesday it has not yet received a warning notice from Amazon that would be required if the company is making large-scale layoffs there. State employment agencies in Washington, where Seattle-based Amazon is headquartered, and in Virginia, where it has a major office, did not immediately report warning notices.

Several economic studies have predicted that higher-paying jobs in computer work and engineering are among the most susceptible to being transformed by generative AI systems that can help write code. Research last week by the Brookings Institution, however, found that workers in those technology roles may be better positioned to move into other work because they have education, skills and savings.

The Brookings research also said that millions of U.S. workers are heavily exposed to AI but are less equipped to adapt. It described many of those workers as being in administrative and clerical roles, about 86% women, older, and concentrated in smaller cities such as university towns or state capitals, where options to shift careers may be more limited.

In the U.S., hiring has been stagnant, the report said, with the country adding 50,000 jobs in December, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November. Labor data cited in the report pointed to reluctance by businesses to add workers even as economic growth has picked up, including amid uncertainty tied to shifting tariff policies and inflation, and to the prospect that AI could alter or replace some jobs.

Layoffs elsewhere at UPS and Pinterest

The report also noted other workforce reductions in the same week. On Tuesday, UPS said it planned to cut up to 30,000 operational jobs through attrition and buyouts this year as it reduces shipments from what the report described as its largest customer, Amazon. The report said UPS had already announced 34,000 job cuts in October and closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of last year.

Also on Tuesday, Pinterest said it plans to lay off under 15% of its workforce as part of broader restructuring, as it invests more in artificial intelligence.

Financial context and stock move

The report said Amazon’s layoffs have not come while the company was in shaky financial condition. It reported that in the most recent quarter, Amazon’s profit jumped nearly 40% to about $21 billion, and revenue rose to more than $180 billion.

It also referenced Jassy saying late last year that job cuts were not driven by company finances or AI. In October, the report said he described it as “It’s culture,” tying the need for reductions to the growth of the business, the number of people and locations, and the layers added over time.

In late afternoon trading Wednesday, the report said shares of Amazon, based in Seattle, fell $2.47, or a little more than 1%.

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