Fears for jobs as Amazon set to cut 14,000 roles worldwide

Amazon employs 6,500 people in Ireland

Amazon is preparing to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs from this week, according to reports. Picture: PA

Amazon is preparing to cut 14,000 corporate jobs this week, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Amazon employs more than 1.5m staff in total, with the majority in warehouse roles around the world. In Ireland, the company employs around 6,500 people in Cork, Dublin, and Drogheda.

The Seattle-based technology giant is seeking to reverse its hiring spree from during the peak of the pandemic.

"The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs," Beth Galetti, Amazon senior vice president of people experience and technology said in a message to employees.

"While this will include reducing in some areas and hiring in others, it will mean an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles."

Boss Andy Jassy had warned workers that a number of jobs in the business could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

Amazon is expected to target divisions globally including human resources, operations, devices and services, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

AWS is the world's largest cloud computing provider and offers a wide variety of services, including storage, databases, machine learning, and security tools.

Disruption to AWS led to outages across a wide range of internet services around the world last week, including HMRC and several banks in the UK.

Sources told the publications that the plans are part of efforts to cut costs and undo the firm's major recruitment drive during the height of the pandemic when shoppers shifted their habits online.

The expected cuts will impact almost a 10th of the company's roughly 350,000 corporate workforce.

It has been trimming roles across the business in recent years, with cuts affecting divisions such as devices, communications and podcasting.

The proposed plans come after Mr Jassy said in June that the increased use of generative AI and AI agents, autonomous AI software systems, will reduce the size of its corporate workforce in the coming years.

In a note to employees, he said: "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done.

"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs."