Amazon has confirmed it will axe hundreds of jobs as the company makes a shift in its wider business strategy.
The e-commerce giant announced it is cutting “a few hundred roles” in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) computing unit that oversees technology used in its physical stores.
This follows the news that Amazon is ending its usage of its self-service checkout “just walk out” tech in grocery stores across the United States.
Sales, marketing and global service teams at Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit could have their jobs on the line with this latest move.
In a statement, AWS said: “These decisions are difficult but necessary as we continue to invest, hire and optimise resources to deliver innovation for our customers.”
The division said it will continue to in other priority areas within the business and pointed out that thousands of jobs with AWS have been posted online.
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Amazon has announced plans to axe hundreds of jobs
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Despite this statement, Amazon did confirm which countries will be affected by the pending round of job cuts.
The online marketplace giant said it will attempt to find internal opportunities for employees whose roles are impacted.
Lee Sustar, a principal analyst at research and advisory firm Forrester, blamed changing factors in the economy in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also cited the rise in artificial intelligence as likely being partially responsible for Amazon’s decision to slash roles.
He said: “AWS has been adapting to customers’ cost-cutting efforts following the spike in cloud IT spending during the pandemic, assisting them in that process.
“The resulting moderation of demand is a factor in these layoffs as well as enterprise cloud spending on AI flowing to Microsoft Azure, challengers like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and new AI-focused cloud companies.”
These latest cuts come shortly after previous layoffs announced in January across Amazon’s Prime Video and MGM Studios unit.
On top of this, Amazon-owned streaming service Twitch slashed more than 500 jobs in the same month to save on costs.
The decision by Amazon comes amid an ongoing trend of job cuts in the tech sector over the last year-and-a-half.
Thousands of roles have been cut across some of the industry’s biggest firms, including Meta, Google and Microsoft.
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The job cuts will affect those working across Amazon's AWS division
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Some 1,061 companies in tech laid off workers last year, according to research carried out by personal finance company Nerdwallet.
This total figure is more than in 2020 and 2021 combined and is indicative of the changes within the sector.
For 2023, Amazon was found to have laid off the most workers with 27,410 workers losing their jobs.
This was followed by followed by Meta at 21,000, Google at 12,115 and Microsoft at 11,158.