E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) is cutting 14,000 jobs ahead of the year-end holidays, a time when it typically hires seasonal workers.
The layoffs are among the largest cuts to Amazon’s corporate workforce in the company’s history and cover nearly every part of its business.
Amazon is the second-largest private sector employer in the U.S. The company has nearly 1.55 million staff worldwide.
Most of the Seattle-based company’s staff are comprised of warehouse workers. It has about 350,000 corporate employees globally.
Amazon it is not the only mega-cap technology company to layoff staff in recent months.
Microsoft (MSFT) has laid off about 15,000 people this year, while Meta Platforms (META)
recently cut 600 jobs in its artificial intelligence (AI) unit.
In each case, the technology companies have said they cut staff to free-up cash as they invest billions of dollars in their AI applications and models.
At the same, companies across industries including banking and retail have said that the rise of AI is changing their workforces.
Amazon has conducted rolling layoffs across the company since 2022, which has resulted in more than 27,000 employees being let go over the past three years.
Management at Amazon have said that automation, AI, and robots will continue to shrink its workforce, including in its warehouses, in coming years.
AMZN stock has gained 3% this year to trade at $226.97 U.S. per share.
