AMAZON is to slash about 16,000 jobs in a second round of mass layoffs in three months, the e-commerce giant confirmed today.

The reductions follow cuts announced in October, when Amazon said it would lay off 14,000 workers, as the company pares back a workforce that expanded rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic and increasingly turns to generative artificial intelligence.

Senior vice-president Beth Galetti said in a blog post that Amazon had been “reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy.”

She did not specify which teams or locations would be affected.

Some business units completed their restructuring in October, while others have not finished until now, Ms Galetti said. 

US-based staff will have 90 days to seek a new post internally before being offered severance pay, outplacement services and continued health insurance.

Chief executive Andy Jassy has said that generative AI is expected to reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the coming years. 

The cuts announced today are the company’s largest since 2023, when it eliminated 27,000 jobs.

The layoffs come despite Amazon reporting a nearly 40 per cent jump in quarterly profits to about $21 billion (£15.2bn), with revenue rising above $180bn (£130.5bn).

Mr Jassy said last year that the job cuts were driven by culture rather than finances, citing rapid growth that created excess layers of management.

Amazon appeared to prematurely alert some Amazon Web Services staff to planned layoffs, after an internal email mistakenly said on Tuesday that affected employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been informed.

The message, referring to the cuts as Project Dawn, was later followed by a cancelled meeting invitation.