Amazon to axe 16,000 corporate jobs

(Sharecast News) - Amazon is to cut around 16,000 jobs, it was confirmed on Wednesday, as the US tech and retail giant looks to right-size its corporate workforce.

The latest round of layoffs comes on the back of 14,000 redundancies announced last autumn. Taken together, they represent a 10% reduction in Amazon's corporate workforce.

Globally, Amazon employs around 1.58m people, but the vast majority of those work in warehouses and fulfilment centres.

Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, acknowledged it was "difficult news" in a blogpost shared with employees.

But she insisted the job cuts would "strengthen our organisation by reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy".

Affected employees in the US will now have 90 days to look for a new role internally. The timing will vary for those based outside the States.

Galetti insisted this was not "the beginning of a new rhythm, where we announce broad reductions every few months".

But she added that every team would continue to evaluate the "ownership, speed and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate".

News of the layoffs first emerged on Friday, although Amazon declined to comment at that stage.

Staff at Amazon Web Services were then inadvertently informed earlier than planned on Tuesday, after the company accidentally sent employees an online meeting invitation that included a draft email discussing the cuts.

Referring to the layoffs as Project Dawn, the message erroneously said employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been told they had lost their jobs.