Amazon announces 16,000 layoffs, the second major cut in three months
The technology company attributes the decision to the readjustment process following the "overhiring" during the pandemic and to artificial intelligence.
BarcelonaAmazon has announced a new wave of layoffs that will affect 16,000 people worldwide. This is the second major restructuring by the e-commerce and cloud computing giant in the last three months, following the one in January. will announce the departure of 18,000 peopleOf these, 791 were in the corporate offices in Barcelona. The company attributes this second wave to the restructuring process following the era of overhiring resulting from the pandemic, but also to the implementation of artificial intelligence.
Thus, the figure rises to 34,000 people, a small part of the more than 1.5 million employees the company has worldwide. Although in November the company set it at 10,000 The layoffs, announced in mid-January, raised the total to 18,000 people. At that time, the most affected departments were human resources and the "stores" division. In an internal memo, the company's CEO, Andy Jassy, attributed the decision to economic uncertainty and the high number of contracts signed in recent years. According to Reuters, Amazon was planning a second round of cuts last week as part of a broader target of 30,000 jobs. The layoffs are now expected to occur in Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video, and human resources departments.
![A user shopping on Amazon](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 9"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The impact of AI on the labor market
Amazon's announcement highlights how the application of artificial intelligence is already leading to workforce reductions in large companies, something that was foreseeable and is already being seen in our country as well. This is confirmed by the latest edition of the study.Salary evolution 2007-2025The study, presented last week at a press conference by the Eada business school and the human resources consultancy ICSA, warned of a "dismantling" of middle management positions due to the incorporation of artificial intelligence into the workplace. According to the study, this process is causing an "organizational flattening," eliminating supervisory and quality control positions, leaving room only for the other two categories: managers and workers.
