Amazon employees reported a new round of job cuts in several areas of the company on Tuesday.
A group of employees wrote on an internal Slack channel that they had received emails telling them their roles had been eliminated, according to messages seen by Business Insider. The channel, which had nearly 37,000 members, quickly filled with questions about severance packages, access to internal job postings and whether more notifications were still coming.
The messages suggest overlap between several business units, including customer service, marketplace support and engineering roles in Amazon’s retail sector, as well as in India and the UK.
Fewer than 1,000 employees were affected in total, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The new cuts show that Amazon’s cost overhaul continues to reshape its workforce, even as the company embarks on its biggest spending spree yet. After cutting about 30,000 jobs late last year and early this year to cut costs and streamline its organization, Amazon is now preparing to spend a record $220 billion on data centers, chips and other infrastructure for AI.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the company cut “a small number” of positions on Tuesday, primarily in its Stores business.
“We are always reviewing our team structures to ensure we are best prepared to move forward quickly while innovating for customers,” the spokesperson said. “We have adjusted parts of our Stores business because we believe this structure will allow us to better meet our priorities. As part of these changes, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of positions, and we are committed to supporting affected employees throughout their transition.
The layoffs follow months of anxiety among Amazon workers over the prospect of another round of budget cuts, according to people familiar with the matter. Employees are bracing for layoffs after previous reductions, and some executives have scaled back their planning for upcoming quarters, in part because they expected their teams or priorities to change, according to one of the sources.
The uncertainty has left employees scanning management meetings, calendar invitations, and shift changes for clues. In the Slack channel, workers asked whether all notices had been sent, how sick leave would be handled, and whether they would retain access to Slack and Outlook during their notice periods. Others questioned whether the cuts would apply to Mexico and elsewhere in Europe.
For many employees, the immediate question was whether they could find another job at Amazon before their employment ended. One post asked whether workers who received an outside offer during the 90-day notice period would have to forfeit their severance pay if they left early.
Amazon is not alone in associating job cuts with a greater push for AI. Meta cut about 8,000 positions in May while redirecting thousands of other workers to AI initiatives, and Microsoft cut more than 5,000 jobs in July and September.
Amazon, meanwhile, has also contacted former employees, including some laid off in previous rounds, about vacancies within AWS and its AI businesses.
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