Amazon plans to replace 600,000 human workers with robots, report says

Amazon has been use robots in its warehouses for over a decade, and it won’t stop anytime soon. According to an article published Monday by the New York Times, Amazon is seeking to strengthen its army of robots at the expense of human jobs.

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The Times reports that internal Amazon documents suggest the company plans to build and use more robots to replace human workers. The publication does not specify whether this will lead to mass layoffs. However, robots would allow Amazon to avoid hiring new workers to meet growing demand, resulting in the replacement of 600,000 jobs by 2033, according to the report.

The report also says the company wants to mitigate impacts in communities that could lose jobs. Documents show the company considered building an image as a “good corporate citizen” by participating more in community events such as local parades and Toys for Tots. And the leaked documents explain to avoid using terms like automation and AI, but instead use terms like “advanced technology” and replace the word “robot” with “cobot” to suggest collaboration.

“Leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans, and that is the case here,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNET in an email. “In this case, the documents appear to reflect the view of a single team and do not represent our overall recruitment strategy across our different business lines – now or in the future.”

The spokesperson said that “no company has created more jobs in America over the past decade than Amazon” and that the company is actively recruiting at its operational facilities, with plans to fill 250,000 positions for the holiday season.

Impact on employment

Amazon is the third largest employer in the United States, behind the federal government and Walmart. To date, the company employs around 1.5 million workers, most of whom work in warehouses or as delivery drivers.

In the United States, only a handful of companies have more than 600,000 employees. Delivery company FedEx has around 550,000 employees. A reduction in size reported by the Times would amount to the complete disappearance of FedEx.

Studies have been carried out on the impact of robots on human wages. Since 2020, every robot a company adds per 1,000 workers reduces U.S. wages by 0.42% and has cost humans about 400,000 jobs.

“Our investments will continue to create substantial jobs, with an emphasis on higher-paying positions,” Amazon said in an email. “In particular, and as mentioned in the New York Times article, efficiencies in one area allow us to invest in other areas — both existing and entirely new areas — that create additional value for customers. While it is difficult to predict the future with precision, our track record demonstrates that we have consistently been a significant job creator while simultaneously investing in developing our workforce for evolving roles.