Amazon may lay off 30,000 employees in largest job cut in the company’s history

Amazon is reportedly preparing for a significant reduction in its corporate workforce, with plans to cut as many as 30,000 jobs starting this week, news agency Reuters reported citing three people familiar with the matter.

The massive layoff—which would represent nearly 10% of the company's roughly 350,000 corporate employees—marks Amazon’s largest job elimination effort since late 2022, when it shed approximately 27,000 positions. The job cuts also represent the biggest single round of job eliminations across the entire tech industry since at least 2020, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks technology sector job cuts.The report says that the job eliminations are slated to begin with email notifications going out on Tuesday (October 28) morning, following training given to impacted team managers on Monday (October 27). While Amazon has been steadily trimming smaller numbers of jobs over the past two years, this new round of cuts is expected to affect a wide variety of divisions, including:

The cuts are driven by an effort to pare expenses and compensate for aggressive overhiring during the peak pandemic demand.

Fortune previously reported that the human resources division could face a reduction of around 15%.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s efficiency push

The layoffs align with CEO Andy Jassy’s broader initiative to reduce bureaucracy within the company, including lowering the number of managers. Jassy has signaled that increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to further job reductions by automating repetitive tasks.Another contributing factor cited by insiders is the company’s recent stringent requirement for corporate staff to return to the office five days per week.

This policy has reportedly failed to generate sufficient voluntary attrition, making layoffs necessary to hit desired headcount targets.Some employees who have not complied are reportedly being told they have voluntarily quit and must leave without severance, the report claimed.Despite the corporate restructuring, Amazon appears confident about the holiday season, planning to offer 250,000 seasonal jobs—the same figure as the prior two years—to staff its warehouses and handle expected seasonal demand.