Over 1,800 engineers hit by Amazon’s record layoffs that were ‘not driven by AI’

Over 1,800 engineers were affected in Amazon’s recent round of layoffs, which cut about 14,000 roles across the American multinational technology company’s multiple divisions.

Data from Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings showed that nearly 40% of over 4,700 job cuts in New York, California, New Jersey and Washington were engineering roles, according to CNBC. The filings showed a mix of software engineer levels, though SDE II roles, or mid-level employees, were disproportionately affected.

These job cuts represent only part of the total layoffs announced in October, as state WARN reporting requirements vary.

While the layoffs came as Amazon is shifting its resources to invest more in artificial intelligence (AI), Amazon said that AI is not the driver behind the vast majority of the job cuts and that the company’s bigger goal was to reduce bureaucracy and emphasise speed.

Last month, Reuters reported that the job cuts were to address the company’s over-hiring during the pandemic and cut costs as the holiday selling season approaches.

Amazon is expected to carry out more job cuts next year.

According to CNBC, human resources chief Beth Galetti wrote in her memo announcing the layoffs that the “transformative” generation of AI is enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.

“We’re convinced that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business,” she wrote.

So far this year, 231 tech companies have cut nearly 113,000 jobs, according to Layoffs.fyi, a trend that began in 2022. /TISG

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