Amazon employees said on Tuesday that several departments within the company have initiated a new round of layoffs.
According to messages seen by Business Insider, a group of employees wrote on an internal Slack channel that they had received emails notifying them that their positions had been canceled. This channel, which has nearly 37,000 members, was quickly flooded with discussions about severance packages, internal job application permissions, and whether further notifications would be issued.
These messages indicate that the layoffs involve multiple business units, including customer service, market support, and engineering positions within Amazon's retail business. They also affect some teams in India and the UK.
According to an informed source, the total number of employees affected this time is less than 1,000.
A new round of layoffs indicates that despite Amazon launching its largest expenditure expansion to date, its cost adjustments are still reshaping the company's white-collar workforce. At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Amazon cut about 30,000 jobs in order to reduce costs and streamline its organizational structure; now, the company is preparing to invest a record $220 billion in data centers, chips, and other AI infrastructure.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the company cut "a small number" of jobs on Tuesday, mainly in its Stores business unit.
The spokesperson stated, "We are constantly reviewing our team structure to ensure that the organization can act swiftly in the best possible manner when innovating for our customers. We have made adjustments to some teams responsible for the Stores business because we believe that such a structure will better help us achieve our priorities. As part of these changes, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of positions and commit to providing support to the affected employees during the transition period."
According to people familiar with the matter, prior to this, Amazon employees had been anxious for months about the possibility of another round of large-scale layoffs. Having experienced previous layoffs, the employees had been preparing for a new round. One of these individuals mentioned that some managers even scaled back their plans for the coming quarters, partly because they anticipated that their teams or priorities might change.
This uncertainty has led employees to constantly look for clues in management meetings, calendar invitations, and team changes. On the aforementioned Slack channel, employees are asking whether all notifications have been sent out, how medical leave will be handled, and whether they will still be able to maintain access to Slack and Outlook during the notification period. Some also want to know if the layoffs will extend to Mexico and other regions in Europe.
For many employees, the most immediate question at the moment is whether they can find another job within Amazon before officially leaving. One post asked whether employees would have to give up their severance package if they received an external job offer during the 90-day notice period and left ahead of time.
