Amazon prepares for largest layoffs in company history

Amazon is preparing to lay off tens of thousands of employees, reversing the massive hiring wave driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, The Guardian reports, CE Report quotes ANSA.

The news of the layoffs comes months after the company’s CEO warned staff that some roles could eventually be replaced by artificial intelligence.

The Seattle-based company plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs starting today, as part of efforts to reduce costs and scale back the extensive hiring campaign launched at the height of the pandemic, when surging online demand temporarily boosted sales.

Although the layoffs represent only a small fraction of Amazon’s global workforce of 1.55 million employees, they would affect about 10% of its roughly 350,000 corporate staff. CNBC has described it as the largest round of layoffs in the company’s history.