Participants will walk through the expo hall of AWS Re: Invent, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services held in Las Vegas on December 3, 2024.
Noah Burger | Getty Images
Amazon The company confirmed Thursday.
“After a thorough review of our organization, priorities and what we need to focus on what’s ahead, we have made the challenging business decision to eliminate some roles across a particular team on AWS,” Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. “We didn’t downplay these decisions, and we’re committed to supporting our employees through their transition.”
The company refused to say which units within the Amazon Web Services were affected or how many employees were let go as a result of the recruitment.
AWS Training and Certification Unit was one of the groups viewing the cut, sent by department head Michel Vaz and according to a memo viewed by CNBC.
Reuters first reported the layoffs.
In May, Amazon reported its third straight quarterly revenue error on AWS. Revenue rose 17% in the first quarter to $29.27 billion, slowing from 18.9% in the previous period.
Amazon said the cuts were not primarily due to investments in artificial intelligence, but rather the result of ongoing efforts to streamline and focus the workforce on specific priorities. The company said it continues to hire within AWS.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been involved in cost-cutting missions for the past few years, resulting in more than 27,000 employees being let go since 2022. Employment cuts continue this year, but are smaller than in previous years. Amazon’s store, telecommunications and devices and services divisions have been hit with layoffs in recent months.
Last year, AWS cut hundreds of jobs in its technology and sales and marketing units in physics stores.
Last month, Jassy predicted that Amazon’s corporate workforce could further reduce the size as a result of using generated AI.
“There are fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy told staff. “It’s difficult to know exactly where this will come over time, but we expect this will reduce our total workforce over the next few years.”
