The round of more than 30,000 layoffs that Amazon announced at the beginning of the week seemed something far away. Finally, the figure was lowered to 14,000 layoffswhich is still dramatic.
However, two companies linked to Amazon in Spain have initiated employment regulation files (ERE) for their workers in Madrid and Barcelona, which indicates that Spain is also among Amazon’s workforce reduction plans.
1,200 jobs between Madrid and Barcelona
Just a few days ago, Amazon announced a round of staff layoffs that would affect some 14,000 employees around the world. According what was published by EFE and Europa Press, the company’s corporate employees in Spain will be part of that adjustment.
As confirmed by Amazon at the request of Xataka, two employment regulation files have been opened in the companies Amazon Digital Spain, whose offices are located in Madrid, and Amazon Spain Services, located in Barcelona. The combination of both processes will affect up to 1,200 employees of these corporate offices.
Sources from EFE point out that the layoffs would be limited only to the staff of those offices, but not to the operations and logistics part that Amazon has spread throughout the national territory.
Amazon’s global workforce is estimated at around 1.5 million employees, of which around 350,000 hold corporate positions. According to data from 2025 provided by Amazonits staff in Spain would be about 28,000 employees distributed in 19 provinces.
Amazon indicated in its official statement on the reduction of 14,000 jobs globally, that those affected would be offered a period of 90 days to look for a new position within the company, although it was clarified that this period could vary depending on the legislation in force in each country, so we do not know if those affected by this ERE will be able to relocate to other positions within the company.
It’s not for money, it’s for agility
Amazon’s decision in Spain is known just after publishing one rrising economic resultsin a context in which the company continues to break turnover and profit records.
The reaction from the Government has not been long in coming from the Minister of Labor, who from her profile on BlueSky has attacked Amazon and its founder: “A company that has million-dollar profits and that leaves its workers stranded is a model of shame. The “Amazon miracle” is this: Jeff Bezos at the service of Trump, not paying taxes, destroying small businesses and mistreating its workers,” wrote Yolanda Diaz.
Unlike what usually happens, the constant layoffs that are taking place in large technology companies (and in other that they are not) They are not explained in a context of financial crisis of those companies (which, in fact, set records in your quotes) but in a scenario of optimizing their templates to be more agile in the race for AI.
This is how Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, explained it in recent statements reported by CNBC: “It’s actually a question of culture. If you grow as fast as we did for several years, you know, the size of the companies, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with many more people than before, and you end up with many more layers.” Eliminating those layers of middle positions reduces your internal bureaucracy and speeds up decisions.
In Xataka | Big Tech doesn’t stop firing its engineers. At the same time, they have stepped on the accelerator in hiring
Image | amazon
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