Amazon’s Big Layoffs Reshape The Future Of Local Jobs

The tech sector in Washington state has been impacted heavily over the last year. Now Amazon is announcing massive layoffs company wide. 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘Amazon is again laying off thousands of corporate employees, mirroring broad cuts the company made to its workforce in October as it continues its anti-bureaucracy push.
Amazon’s head of resources Beth Galetti told employees in a memo Wednesday that the company was cutting 16,000 roles amid further corporate restructuring.’ 

So, what is driving these labor reductions? 

According to Beth Galetti, Amazon's head of resources amazon is “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy”. To me this sounds like corporate speak for reducing staff and moving more money into AI. Amazon is spending billions of dollars on their AI program looking towards new data centers and advanced computer chips. 

When you look at Amazon over the last several years, the layoffs have been staggering. Between 2022 and 2023, Amazon laid off approximately 27,000 employees. Now between October of last year and this year amazon will have laid off an additional 30,000 employees. 

And to think Amazon started out as an online bookstore.  

Currently, Amazon has upwards of 1,578,000 employees worldwide. There are other businesses that are being impacted by Amazon as well. United Parcel Service is one of them. Since Amazon is using less and less third-party organizations to deliver their products, UPS is having to lay off employees. 

In 2025, UPS laid off almost 48,000 workers, and in 2026, they're projecting eliminating another 30,000 jobs.