Amazon will be doing away with 16,000 jobs on a global scale, as per an announcement from the company on Wednesday. This is a part of its second prominent round of layoffs within a span of three months, amid the e-commerce giant restructuring itself after the pandemic.
The Big Tech firm has been adjusting its workforce after "over-hiring" during the Covid-19 pandemic period, and the widespread adoption of AI tools which may have made certain roles obsolete.
The e-commerce giant plans to cut a total of 30,000 corporate jobs, making up 10% of these roles, news agency Reuters reported, with the layoffs expected to impact Amazon Web Services, its retail sector, Prime Video media streaming service, and human resources departments.
The company had eliminated 14,000 white collar roles in October, on the heels of Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy stating that the firm needed to cut down on exorbitant bureaucracy, and it would do so by reducing its operational levels and number of managers.
AI assistants have also seen notable improvement in their capabilities, facilitating firms to fulfil duties such as routine administrative tasks, tricky coding issues with substantial speed and precision, thus spurring extensive adoption.
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The Amazon CEO had also stated that this adoption would lead to more duties being handed over to AI automation, thus having the company trim corporate roles.
The firm has also been adopting robotic technology and putting it to use for packaging and deliveries in the warehouses of its e-commerce arm, in order to speed up operations, cut costs and decrease its dependency on human labour.
Among those affected in the current round of layoffs, the company is set to offer its US-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally, as well as severance and other transition support, according to Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon.
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