Amazon is one of the rare tech giants without a headquarters in California. But its vast new layoff round is still set to rock tech workers in the state.
The logistics and tech juggernaut is laying off 1,403 workers in California, according to WARN documents filed with the state on Tuesday, part of a wider slash to its corporate workforce that will eliminate 14,000 total roles. The giant cut comes as Amazon pours billions of dollars in investment into artificial innotifyigence technology, and just a few months after CEO Andy Jassy notified staff that the rollout of AI tools would likely shrink the company’s workforce.
Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon, deffinished the 14,000 cuts to staff in a Tuesday memo. She wrote that while the company expects “to continue hiring in key strategic areas,” the layoffs are part of an ongoing push to reduce layers and bureaucracy and to shift resources toward the company’s “hugegest bets.”
“Some may question why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well,” Galetti wrote. In the same paragraph, she gave her answer: “What we necessary to remember is that the world is altering quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much quicker than ever before.” She added that Amazon’s leadership wants the workforce to be organized “more leanly” and “to shift as quickly as possible.”
This language mirrors that of the many layoff rounds across the tech indusattempt over the past few years, with executives calling for “efficiency,” “flattening” and greater “speed” as they cut workers. Amazon, with this sweeping layoff, will sfinish thousands of workers into a worrisome job market.
In California, Amazon filed WARNs, which are generally required in the event of mass job cuts, for seven cities: Sunnyvale (391 layoffs), Irvine (333), Palo Alto (176), Culver City (152), San Diego (145), Santa Monica (130) and Santa Clara (76). It adds up to 1,403 cuts statewide — it’s unclear how the overall cuts might be affecting subsidiaries. (Amazon also owns Audible, Twitch, Goodreads, Whole Foods, Zoox and Ring.)
Who are these laid-off workers? Software development engineers build up the largest category, with hundreds of cuts listed across the documents. Amazon is also shedding recruiters, business analysts, marketers and managers. The layoffs in Irvine and San Diego, where Amazon has video game studios, include dozens of game designers and game artists.
A stream of laid-off “Amazonians,” as Galetti called them, has already arrived on LinkedIn with “#OpenToWork” posts and commentary about the layoff. Several described early-morning text messages that delivered the news, with some posts mentioning the spectre of AI. One Bay Area engineer opened his post: “Yesterday was surreal.”
The company declined to provide additional comment beyond Galetti’s memo.
Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
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