Amazon Cuts Hammer WA, 2303 Jobs Gone, 600 Software Engineers

One of the 600 laid-off software and development engineers told a Seattle tech magazine, based on their productivity and performance, they never thought they'd be fired.  Massive layoffs, 14,000 corporate-wide, announced Wednesday.

  Amazon sends shock waves through Western WA

Amazon had said they were potentially going to cut as many as 30K corporate jobs globally into 2026, but the first round of 14,000 hit Puget Sound pretty hard.

   Geekwire and others are reporting 2,303 corporate workers, including 600 software and development engineers, are gone. According to the Seattle-based tech magazine:

"A detailed list included with the state filing reveals which roles are impacted by the layoffs. More than 600 software development engineering roles are being cut among the 2,303 affected workers in Washington — more than a quarter of total cuts."

  The list shows dozens of locations, mostly in Seattle, Bellevue and Renton, among about 10 locations where workers were let go.

  This includes 3 in Spokane and 1 in Pasco, according to the list. 

Those are beleived to be among the 100 remote workers who were terminated.

The rapidly escalating layoffs include a lot of workers who do coding, as well as engineers. Both Amazon and Microsoft have been dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into AI development.  Amazon CEO Andy Jassey had said a few months ago the layoffs were coming, and robotic team leaders at Amazon say by 2033, they hope to have 75 percent of their warehouse and fulfillment center tasks performed by AI-controlled robots.

 Geekwire has covered some meetings with leading tech innovators in the Seattle region, who are wondering where the next 'big' tech breakthrough and growth will come from, all while Amazon, Microsoft and others drop job after job largely due to the pursuit of AI.