Amazon to lay off 16,000 employees globally

Amazon has announced the layoff of 16,000 employees globally as part of additional organisational changes. The company said it will support affected staff while continuing to hire and invest in strategic areas critical to its long-term growth

New Delhi: E-commerce giant Amazon on Wednesday said it was laying off 16,000 employees globally as part of “additional organisational changes”.

This is the second major round of layoffs at the company in about three months in the AI era.

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Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said that “we’re making additional organisational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates”.

In a blog post, she said that “I recognise this is difficult news, which is why I’m sharing what’s happening and why”.

“As I shared in October, we’ve been working to strengthen our organisation by reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy. While many teams finalised their organisational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now,” said Galetti.

The reductions “we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we’re again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted”.

The job cuts start with offering most US-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally. Timing will vary internationally based on local and country-level requirements.

Then, for teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, “we’ll provide transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, as applicable, and more,” said Amazon.

The company said it will continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to its future.

“We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead,” said Galetti.

The fresh layoffs come after the company announced it was reducing 14,000 roles.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm, where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan. But just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate,” said Amazon.