Amazon may layoff as many as 30,000 employees, according to Reuters on Monday, which said a spokesperson declined to comment on the rumors. We reached out to Amazon by email asking for confirmation and whether such layoffs would impact sellers and did not hear back by press time.
As we reported last week, Amazon is creating 250,000 jobs in the US this holiday season even as layoff rumors first surfaced in CRN on October 15.
In a post on LinkedIn today, Reuters tech reporter Greg Bensinger shared a link to his story and posted: “New from me at Reuters, Amazon is targeting a big job cut starting tomorrow that could impact upwards of 30,000 corporate employees. It would represent the largest cuts at Amazon since some 27,000 workers were let go starting in 2022. The company has been working to pare expenses after a big hiring surge during the pandemic for a peak in demand.”
However, some commentors didn’t buy the pandemic excuse, with former Amazon engineer Ben Smith writing, “It’s time to put the “paring of expenses after a big hiring surge during the pandemic” narrative to rest, please. Amazon purged its ranks in 2023. And again in 2024. And again in 2025. At what point will journalism focus on Amazon’s very obvious transition to Day 2?”
CRN noted in its October 15th article that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had said in June that he expected AI to reduce its total corporate workforce as it reaps efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company. LinkedIn commentors on Monday discussed that aspect as well.
Talent Logic recruiter Lisa Hathaway said, “AI CEOs have predicted 20-50% job losses due to AI….it’s going to be awfully hard to buy Amazon’s stuff when 20-50% of the population is unemployed.”
Retired archaeologist and part-time researcher Mark Wittkofski questioned the tax breaks Amazon received for its second headquarters in Virginia. (Local and state governments that give breaks to corporations generally do so in the name of job creation that can boost their economies.)
Amazon is announcing third-quarter earnings on Thursday, where Wall Street analysts will be hungry for information about all of the above. Of interest to sellers is whether rumored layoffs would include employees in such roles as customer service, seller verification, and trust & safety.
Etsy and eBay report their Q3 earnings on Wednesday.