Amazon to lay off some 30,000 corporate employees

United States e-commerce giant Amazon said it plans to lay off around 30,000 employees in its corporate division.

While this figure represents a small percentage of the company’s 1.55 million employees worldwide, it is nearly 10 per cent of its corporate workforce.

Employees were expected to be notified of the layoffs by email beginning on Tuesday morning.

Amazon said it is paring back staff as it needs to be "organised more leanly" in order to seize opportunities provided by artificial intelligence.

Like many technology firms, it hired aggressively during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet the surge in demand for online deliveries and digital services.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in June that the company "will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs".

News of the layoffs came less than a week after US media reported that Amazon plans to use robots and other automated systems to do the jobs of up to 600,000 employees in the next eight years.

In other business news, United Parcel Service said on Tuesday that it has cut 48,000 jobs and closed daily operations at 93 buildings so far this year, as part of its turnaround efforts.

In April, UPS said was looking to slash jobs and close facilities as it drastically reduces the number of Amazon shipments it handles

In January, it announced that it had reached a deal with Amazon, its biggest customer, to lower its volume by more than 50 per cent by the second half of 2026.