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Amazon cuts 16k jobs

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#52
post #42
post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

They actually still have 1,5 million employees. The number has been approximately the same since 2021, and those 16,000 won't make a dent.

I mean most of those are warehouse workers or delivery or customer support or something, right?

Pretty big difference between corporate Amazon and retail business Amazon division wise I think

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#53

>Amazon axes 16,000 American jobs as it ... relocates to a larger campus in India https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/10/amazon-to-invest-additiona...

Maybe the support scammers can get some real jobs as prompt engineers? Hey I'm trying to find some upside around all this.

> Hey I'm trying to find some upside around all this.

More AWS outages means more breaks from work?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#54
post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

In this case, there might be some truth to the statement.

Not in the sense that AI is replacing current jobs, but that they would rather invest that money in Anthropic or on Data Center buildouts

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#55
post #35

I wonder what kind of unprecedented economic growth we'd be seeing right now if we kept with the status quo rather than imposing tariffs and scaring off foreign investors.

[flagged]

I think the talk was significant inflation, because everything will cost more. And it does.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#56
post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

The simple answer is that they hire more than they fire. In a lot of cases they will fill a role immediately after they fire the last person who was in it. Average employee retention at companies like Amazon (both voluntary and forced) is ridiculously low - something like 1.5 years. PIPs, forced burnout, mass layoffs etc. are all part of the corporate strategy. The revolving door helps keep costs low because employees leave before the bulk of their stock grants have vested.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#57
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah. pretending to innovate rather than just shed ZIRP-era deadweight. like IBM laid off a few thousand "due to AI" in 2023 , lol.

"ZIRP-era deadweight" that's 3-4 years ago now

You underestimate how sclerotic large corporations can be. I've seen people do zero work, quite visibly, at fortune 500s and not be fired for over a year.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#58

I feel like this is the most natural layoff I've seen in twenty years (that is not the same as saying I feel good about it). Truly, most software companies need to cut their entire roster and re-draft quite frankly. You will need less people and have entirely new goals. This is beyond "economic" reality, AI has made it intuitive to restructure and reorient. Not doing so will just mean you will be blind-sided by any c…

"radical ethics" indeed.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#59
post #42
post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

They actually still have 1,5 million employees. The number has been approximately the same since 2021, and those 16,000 won't make a dent.

The 1.5M number includes non-corporate employees (warehouse). They likely included this number to soften the message. The corporate workforce is ~300K so this is actually ~4% of their workforce.
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