Amazon to lay off tens of thousands of employees, according to reports

(KRON) — Amazon is planning to lay off tens of thousands of corporate employees according to multiple reports. The job cuts, which could see the e-commerce giant axe as many as 30,000 jobs, could begin as early as Tuesday, said the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

The layoffs come as the company is looking to cut expenses and correct for over-hiring during the peak demand of the pandemic, according to Reuters. The massive job cuts would represent nearly 10% of Amazon’s roughly 350,000 corporate employees and would be Amazon’s biggest layoffs since late 2022, when it cut around 27,000 jobs.

In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo to staff stating that increased use of artificial intelligence would eliminate the need for certain jobs and calling the technology a once-in-a-lifetime technological change.

It is not clear how many, if any, of the layoffs currently being reported are related to AI. Amazon has major offices throughout the Bay Area in Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, and East Palo Alto.