Breaking Job News: Amazon & UPS Cut Jobs as Skills-First Hiring and Engagement Shift

Episode notes

Layoffs are back in the headlines, and they’re colliding with deeper shifts in how companies hire and how workers feel about work. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down major job cuts at Amazon and UPS, alongside new data on skills-first hiring and employee engagement. He starts with Amazon’s confirmation of roughly 16,000 corporate job cuts, completing a broader plan totaling nearly 30,000 corporate reductions since October, the largest in company history, as leadership pushes to reduce layers, increase ownership, and accelerate automation and AI. Pete explains which parts of the business are affected, why Amazon is doubling down on AI despite growing skepticism, and what these moves signal for corporate roles more broadly. Next, Pete looks at UPS’s plan to eliminate up to 30,000 positions and close dozens of facilities as it deliberately scales back lower-margin Amazon delivery volume. Unlike Amazon, UPS is emphasizing attrition and buyouts over direct layoffs, highlighting how strategy, unionization, and profitability shape workforce decisions differently, even during cuts.

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