Amazon cuts jobs in comms divisions of Studios, Prime Video, Music: Report

Amazon job cuts: Tech giant Amazon has slashed jobs in communications divisions in Amazon Studios, Amazon Prime Video, and Amazon Music verticals. Around 5 per cent of the workforce has reportedly been impacted in the communications divisions of Amazon Studios, Prime Video and Music. The job cuts represent less than 1 per cent of Amazon's global communications staff.

The company, however, said that the employees will receive their pay and benefits for a period of 60 days. They will also be eligible for a severance package, transitional benefits, and job placement support, according to a report in Deadline.

This, however, is not the first time that Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios have been let go. In April this year, around 100 of Amazon Studios and 7,000 of Amazon Studios' staffers were let go in April.

"We regularly review the structure of our teams and make adjustments based on the needs of the business and, following a recent review, we've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles on our communications team," company spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement shared with Deadline. "We're grateful to these employees for their contributions, and we're focused on supporting them in their next steps," Glasser further said.

In July this year, Amazon announced a round of layoffs at its Fresh Grocery stores as part of the restructuring process. The company eliminated the "zone lead" role during the restructuring of the in-store staff and operations model at its stores in the US.

The company made 44 job cuts across Fresh stores in 8 states and Washington DC. The affected employees can look for other roles within the company or accept severance payments provided by the company. Earlier this year, the company had announced that it will be closing some Fresh and Go stores due to cost-cutting measures.

As part of its cost-cutting drive, Amazon also confirmed recently that it is shutting down Amp, its live audio service. The developments come after several rounds of layoffs at Amazon across geographies. Amazon eliminated around 18,000 positions between November 2022 and January 2023.

In March 2023, the company announced plans to lay off an additional 9,000 employees. In May this year, it was also revealed that Amazon fired 500 employees in India across different businesses and functions. The layoffs impacted employees across Amazon Web Services (AWS), human resources, and support functions.

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