Amazon Slashes 16,000 Jobs To "Strengthen" the Company

Amazon has announced a further 16,000 job cuts in order to reduce beaurocracy and free up company funds to be spent on "strategic areas" such as artificial intelligence (via New York Times.)

Amazon justified the decision by stating that we're living in a "world that's changing faster than ever", and the company needs to make sufficient adaptations to keep up with those changes. In conjuction with 14,000 jobs that were cut last fall, the mass layoffs at Amazon have now reached a total of 30,000.

How Amazon's Job Cuts Will Affect The Company

The Hollywood Reporterexpressed that Amazon's job cuts will be felt across all corners of the company, "including at Prime Video and Amazon MGM studios." The company is looking to invest more of its budget into resources like AI to streamline production costs, which could affect Prime and MGM's output very quickly.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm where we announce broad reductions every few months," said HR operator Beth Galetti. "That’s not our plan. But just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate."

Amazon's $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM in 2022 has drastically impacted the way the studio operates its film and television branches—and for the most part, it's been a hugely successful transition. Original movies like The Beekeper, Red One, and The Accountant 2 have all grossed over $100 million at the worldwide box office, and the studio displays no signs of slowing down its Prime Video output any time soon.

These job cuts will undoubtedly be met with mixed reception from the business industry, but Amazon MGM is confident that they're making a decision that will increase and improve their output in the coming years.