Amazon cuts 250 jobs, employees wake up to early morning email saying difficult decision

Amazon has conducted another round of layoffs with about 250 roles being impacted. The company has made these job cuts in its devices unit that is responsible for Kindle and Echo products.

In Short

• Amazon lays off 250 employees
• Company sends early morning email to impacted employees
• Cuts come in Amazon’s devices unit

On Wednesday, Amazon laid off 250 employees. The cuts come in the company’s devices unit that is responsible for products such as Kindle e-readers and Echo smart speakers. The reductions primarily affect software development roles.

Amazon's devices team operates globally, but its core leadership is based in the US. It is unclear which region's employees were affected.

As per a report from Reuters, Amazon informed impacted employees about the job cuts via early morning emails and text messages. One email, cited in the report, was from Amazon VP Cherie Robinson. Robinson said the company had conducted “a thorough review of our structure,” resulting in the need for job cuts. Early morning emails are not uncommon when it comes to layoffs. Previously, companies such as Meta and Oracle have also notified impacted employees through such emails.

Amazon confirmed the layoffs in a statement. “We've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles," a spokesperson said. While the company did not specify how many roles were impacted, the report mentions 250 workers being laid off.

India Today Tech has reached out to Amazon for further details. The story will be updated as and when the company responds.

Why is Amazon laying off workers?

As per the spokesperson, the job cuts will help Amazon “operate more efficiently and better align with our product roadmap.” A day before this decision, Amazon published a September memo from its engineering leadership on the role of developers in the age of AI. “We all need to embrace this change and take the time to learn, or we risk being left behind,” the memo said, adding that AI would be central to software engineering practices.

The cuts came on the day Amazon announced five new Alexa-powered devices, including a redesigned Echo Show 16 smart display, an Alexa Photo Frame and the Echo Time bedside clock. These devices were developed by the company’s devices unit.

The latest round of layoffs follows Amazon's decision earlier this month to cut about 1,000 jobs in its core retail division. In January, the company announced 16,000 job cuts after laying off 14,000 people in October last year. At the same time, the company is pouring billions into AI. Amazon is expected to invest as much as $220 billion in AI this year alone.

But Amazon is far from the only company cutting jobs. As per Layoffs.fyi, over 1,35,000 tech jobs have been eliminated this year alone. Most recently, Dropbox announced that it was cutting 9 per cent of its global workforce. On the other hand, Microsoft has offered voluntary exit options to roughly 60,000 workers, or 1 in 4 of its total workforce.

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