Amazon planning to axe thousands of jobs

The speculation comes only three months after the tech giant cut around 14,000 jobs

Amazon is planning to cut thousands of jobs as it pushes forward with efforts to streamline its operations, according to reports.

The speculation comes only three months after the US tech giant revealed plans to cut around 14,000 corporate jobs in order to reduce bureaucracy across the business.

On Friday, Reuters and Bloomberg both reported that boss Andy Jassy is planning to announce further job cuts in the coming days.

The reports indicate the redundancies would be in the thousands but could be as large as the previous wave of cuts.

Amazon has been contacted for comment.

Staff at Amazon Web Services, Prime Video, retail and HR departments are among those likely to be affected, according to the reports.

Last summer, Mr Jassy highlighted that Amazon was likely to reduce its staff count over the coming years as it increases its use of artificial intelligence for many tasks.

On announcing the previous shake-up in October, he suggested the cuts were likely to go further, stating it had found “additional places we can remove layers”.

Staff at Amazon Web Services, Prime Video, retail and HR departments are among those likely to be affected, according to the reports. (PA Wire)

The company employed around 1.57 million at the end of September last year, with about 350,000 of these across its corporate workforce, while the majority of employees work in its warehouses.

It employs around 75,000 people across its operations in the UK.

The reports of job cuts come after Amazon confirmed it is planning to close one of its fulfilment centres, offering workers the chance to transfer to another site.

The company announced a consultation on a proposal to close the site in Milton Keynes, which was the first Amazon centre to open in 1998.

Amazon said the 590 employees affected by the announcement will be offered a transfer to its new site in Northampton or to other centres.

Amazon said a collective consultation will now begin with the affected employees, who will be offered an opportunity to transfer to its new Northampton site – which will be employing 1,400 people initially, rising to 2,000 – or to other Amazon sites.

The £500 million Northampton building is scheduled to open in May.