Amazon Web Services Announces Job Cuts (Image Source: iStockphoto)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the elimination of several hundred sales, marketing, and tech roles, marking the latest in a series of job cuts by its parent company, Amazon.com (AMZN.O).
Affected Roles and Divisions
According to the Reuters report, the impacted staff include a few hundred individuals from AWS’ sales, marketing, and global services division, as well as the physical stores technology team, revealed the cloud-computing arm of Amazon.
“We’ve identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline,” stated an AWS spokesperson via email.
Continued Downsizing Trend
Amazon has been consistently downsizing its workforce over the past few months, with layoffs occurring across various divisions, including Prime Video, healthcare, and the Alexa voice assistant unit. This trend follows significant job cuts by major technology firms over the past two years, extending into 2024.
Extent of Job Losses
According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 57,000 workers have been laid off across 229 firms so far this year. Amazon had previously laid off over 27,000 employees in 2022 and 2023, a consequence of the tech industry hiring excessively during the pandemic.
The job cuts at AWS’ 60,000-strong sales, marketing, and global services division are believed to be part of a broader reorganization led by sales chief Matt Garman.
Stabilization of Cloud Business
Despite the downsizing efforts, Amazon’s cloud business has shown signs of stabilization after experiencing a growth slowdown last year due to economic uncertainty. This positive performance has contributed to the company surpassing quarterly revenue expectations in February.
