Amazon to cut 14,000 corporate jobs worldwide, S’pore may not be spared
The e-commerce and cloud giant has about 2,500 employees at its Asia-Pacific headquarters here
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Amazon has about 2,500 employees in its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore.
PHOTO: KARSTEN MORAN/NYTIMES
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SINGAPORE – Tech giant Amazon is axing 14,000 corporate jobs across its global offices from Oct 28, and industry observers say Singapore may not be spared.
An internal memo from the senior vice-president overseeing human resources Beth Galetti announced the cuts, following a news break from Reuters on the same day citing 30,000 jobs
In a letter to her colleagues, which was made public, Ms Galetti said the firm is offering most employees 90 days to look for a new role internally, as well as offers of severance pay, outplacement services, and health insurance benefits to those retrenched.
She explained that the layoffs are part of the firm’s ongoing efforts to cut bureaucracy and reporting layers, and shift resources to its “biggest bets”, which she did not specify.
An Amazon spokesperson for the region did not answer a query on whether the job cuts extended to Singapore, but referred The Straits Times to Ms Galetti’s memo.
More than 7,000 workers were laid off in Singapore
Seattle-based Amazon has over 2,500 employees across cloud, corporate, retail, technology and operations functions in Singapore, which is also its Asia-Pacific headquarters.
Ms Galetti added that the company would continue, in 2026, to hire in key strategic areas while continuing job cuts, as chief executive Andy Jassy had said earlier this year.
In 2024, Amazon made US$638 billion (S$826 billion) in revenues and over US$68 billion in operating profits, with 1.55 million employees on its payroll.
Explaining the firings despite the firm being profitable, Ms Galetti said: “The world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before…
“We need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
Amazon has, along with other tech giants, engaged in rounds of firings since late 2022.
It is estimated that it removed 27,000 roles added in frenzied hiring sprees during the pandemic, when consumer demand for tech services surged and tech talent was short.
Amazon is scheduled to report its latest third-quarter earnings on Oct 30.
While Amazon is not a unionised company in Singapore, some of its workers are members of the Tech Talent Assembly (TTAB), an association affiliated with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
In response to ST’s queries, a TTAB spokesperson said on Oct 29 that the association is proactively reaching out to its members to offer help if needed.
The spokesperson added that TTAB works closely with NTUC PME and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) to offer career transition guidance and job matching services. Affected members are encouraged to contact TTAB for assistance by writing to ttab@ntuc.org.sg
