Amazon has revealed their fresh set of global job cuts in an error email that was sent on Tuesday, later confirming that the number of layoffs would be around 16,000.
Workers at Amazon Web Services (AWS) received a meeting invitation from a top executive on Tuesday, January 27, for the following day, which also contained a draft email.
The message mistakenly said the affected employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been informed that they had lost their jobs.
It was signed by Colleen Aubrey, a senior vice-president of applied AI solutions at the company's cloud computing arm AWS, while the layoffs were referred to in the email as "Project Dawn".
"These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organisation and AWS for future success," the email read.
Senior executive Beth Galetti shared with staff that the company is "reducing layers", with most affected US employees given 90 days to find another role internally or take severance.
Amazon had announced in October it was cutting 14,000 corporate roles, and with the latest announcement, the global total has come around to 30,000.
The Seattle-based online retail multinational has been trying to reverse a pandemic hiring spree in an effort to cut costs and slim down its huge operation, which employs about 1.5 million people worldwide.
Previously, Amazon's chief executive, Andy Jassy, warned white-collar workers at the company that their jobs could be taken by AI in the next few years.
