Amazon axes 16,000 corporate roles worldwide

Amazon has begun notifying staff impacted by plans to cut 16,000 corporate roles, with affected employees told they will receive full pay and benefits for 90 days.

Business Insider reported the emails began landing on Wednesday morning (US time), with notices sent to employees in the US, UK and India. The messages were signed by Beth Galetti, SVP, People Experience & Technology.

What Amazon told impacted employees

In the email shared with Business Insider, Galetti said the decision followed “a thorough review” of the organisation’s priorities, and that roles were being eliminated across Amazon.

The notice states employees will enter a non-working period and “continue to receive your full pay and benefits for the next 90 days”.

Support offered during the transition

The email outlines several forms of support for affected employees, including:

• a non-working period on full pay and benefits
• a severance package offer and transitional benefits
• external job placement support
• 12 months’ complimentary access to AWS Skill Builder

Employees were also told they would receive formal paperwork via Amazon’s enterprise document system and that badge access had been restricted.

Impacted teams

Internal Slack messages reviewed by Business Insider suggested that impacted teams included parts of Amazon Web Services, such as Bedrock, Redshift, and the ProServe consulting group.

The messages also pointed to retail-side teams, including Prime and the last-mile Delivery Experience team.

How this compares to recent Amazon cuts

This is the latest mass job cut since October, when Amazon shed 14,000 roles. Amazon employs more than 1.5 million people globally, with its corporate workforce estimated at around 350,000.

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