Amazon To Cut 16,000 Jobs In Latest Bid To Cut Bureaucratic Flab

• The company added that it will continue to hire and invest in areas of strategic interest, despite undertaking massive layoffs in the span of a few months.
• To those impacted by Wednesday’s cuts, the company will offer 90 days to look for a new role internally.
• Galetti added that while some may think that massive layoffs every few months are a pattern at Amazon, saying this is not the company’s plan.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) on Wednesday announced that it is laying off about 16,000 employees in its latest bid to trim the bureaucratic flab.

“We’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” said Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, Beth Galetti.

Galetti added that while many teams finalized their organizational changes in October as the company sought to reduce layers and remove bureaucracy, other teams did not complete that work until now.

Amazon shares were up nearly 0.25% in Wednesday’s pre-market trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for the stock was in the ‘bearish’ territory, with message volumes at ‘high’ levels.

Amazon To Continue Hiring

The company added that it will continue to hire and invest in areas of strategic interest, despite undertaking massive layoffs in the span of a few months.

“While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future. We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead,” Galetti said.

To those impacted by Wednesday’s cuts, the company will offer 90 days to look for a new role internally. However, those who cannot find a new role at Amazon or want to move on will be offered severance pay, outplacement services, applicable health insurance benefits, and more, the company said.

Galetti Dismisses Layoffs As A Pattern

Galetti added that while some may think that massive layoffs every few months are a pattern at Amazon, saying this is not the company’s 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,” she said.

Amazon announced 14,000 layoffs in October, citing the same aim: reducing layers and bureaucracy. This was months after CEO Andy Jassy had signaled workforce reduction due to AI.

AMZN stock is up 6% year-to-date and 4% over the past 12 months.

Also See: Will The Fed Cut Rates This Week?

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