Amazon is reportedly planning to replace more than 500,000 U.S. warehouse jobs with robots over the next decade.
According to internal documents obtained by the New York Times, the move would allow the company to avoid hiring 160,000 workers by 2027 and hundreds of thousands more by 2033.
The company’s robotics team said, “With this major milestone now in sight, we are confident in our ability to flatten Amazon’s hiring curve over the next 10 years.”
The automation plans include handling most tasks in Amazon’s facilities. At the Shreveport, Louisiana, warehouse, robots already manage nearly all operations after packaging, enabling the company to employ a quarter fewer workers than before.
The facility could use half as many employees once more robots are added next year. Similar upgrades are planned for about 40 warehouses by 2027, including a location in Stone Mountain, Georgia, which could require 1,200 fewer staff.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told The Post, “Leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans, and that’s the case here. In this instance, the materials appear to reflect the perspective of just one team and don’t represent our overall hiring strategy across our various operations business lines – now or moving forward.”
She added the company plans to hire 250,000 people for the holiday season, but did not specify how many will be permanent positions.
Experts warn that other large employers may follow suit. MIT economist Daron Acemoglu said, “Once they work out how to do this profitably, it will spread to others, too. Then, one of the biggest employers in the United States will become a net job destroyer, not a net job creator.”
Concerns have also been raised about workforce diversity, since Amazon’s warehouse employees are disproportionately Black.
Amazon has considered ways to maintain a positive image in affected communities, including increased participation in charitable events and using terms like “advanced technology” or “cobot” instead of robot when discussing automation.
As Amazon continues automating its warehouses, the company faces balancing efficiency gains with the potential social and economic impact on workers and communities.
