Amazon Unveils Latest Layoffs, Totaling Over 30,000 Corporate Roles Cut Since Last Year
Amazon's layoffs continue to make headlines, with the latest notice filed by the company in Washington State revealing that 121 jobs will be cut from its Seattle-area workforce beginning October 1. This is not an isolated incident; Amazon has already eliminated approximately 30,000 corporate roles across two announcements, and over the same calendar year, its total workforce grew by about 20,000 people.
According to Amazon's own documents, these layoffs are part of a broader effort to convert corporate headcount into 'fulfilment capacity, data centres, and silicon.' This means that while the company is shedding management layers, it is also investing heavily in its operations and infrastructure. The arithmetic does not support the claim that Amazon is laying people off to pay for artificial intelligence; in fact, the company reported $200.6 billion of net sales and spent $173.0 billion on property and equipment over the past 12 months.
The latest notice was filed with Washington State's Employment Security Department as part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN). This law requires larger employers to give 60 days' notice of mass layoffs and plant closures, and the notices are filed with state labour agencies rather than with the company's investors. The WARN register shows that Amazon has filed six notices in Washington State alone, totaling 5,164 workers.