Recently on Monday, October 27, the American high-tech company Amazon conducted one of the largest rounds of layoffs in recent years, affecting 14,000 employees, raising concerns due to its significant scale. However, overall, the downsizing trend of high-tech companies this year has shown some reduction compared to the previous year.
Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, told Business Insider that the layoffs were not due to financial reasons or driven by artificial intelligence, but rather stemmed from internal cultural issues within the company.
Beth Galetti, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Technology at Amazon, wrote in a blog post on the company’s website on Tuesday that in order to continually strengthen the organization and maintain flexibility, the company is undergoing some organizational restructuring that will impact certain team members.
Between 2022 and 2023, Amazon had already laid off 27,000 employees. This recent round of layoffs marks the largest in recent years for the company. As of the end of 2024, Amazon had approximately 1.5 million employees globally, and this round of layoffs accounts for around 1% of its workforce.
Amazon is providing a 90-day internal recruitment period for affected employees, with priority given to internal candidates. The company is also offering support during the transition period for employees who are unable to find new positions, including severance pay, job referrals, and medical insurance.
Other high-tech companies that have undertaken major layoffs this year include Salesforce, a software company based in San Francisco, which announced 4,000 job cuts on September 2; Microsoft, headquartered in Seattle, which announced 9,000 job cuts in early July; and Intel, based in the California capital, which laid off 5,000 employees in mid-July. Intel’s total announced layoffs this year exceeded 20,000 people, accounting for about 20% of its workforce.
In addition, Meta laid off 3,600 employees in February this year and another 600 in October.
According to trueup.io, a platform tracking global tech companies’ layoffs, there have been a total of 591 layoff incidents in the high-tech sector from January to October this year, affecting 177,000 people, with an average daily layoff rate of 583. Comparatively, last year, high-tech companies laid off 238,000 people, with an average daily rate of 653.
Apart from high-tech companies, the United Parcel Service (UPS) also announced the layoff of 48,000 employees this year. According to the Associated Press, the cuts include 34,000 positions in operational departments and 14,000 managerial positions following the closure of 93 facilities across the U.S. UPS stated that these changes were driven by automation, specifically related to the application of artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, according to information released on X platform by The Kobeissi Letter, a global capital market review publication, companies that have laid off over 10,000 employees this year include Ford (11,000), Accenture (11,000), Nestle (16,000), Intel (24,000), Amazon (30,000), and UPS (48,000).