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Amazon isn’t sweating recent mass job cuts thanks to new workers already waiting in the wings.
Despite the disappointing Q3 earnings that led Amazon to conduct its largest layoffs in its history, the e-commerce giant wants to fully unleash the power of a new type of worker: robots.
Amazon warehouses have made countless headlines for their intense, exhaustive nature as workers try to meet unmanageable deadlines. As a result, turnover rates and calls for unionization have grown rampant across warehouses workers as they demand better conditions.
Now, the company hopes that automation could alleviate the pressure these employees have experienced, while slowing down its turnover rate. But this doesn’t mean workers will lose their jobs.
“If you reframe your relationship with machines, you can gain incredible productivity,” said Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics.
The goal for many corporations is to avoid unionization. By implementing robots that can take over repetitive tasks, workers have more opportunity to upskill within the company, inevitably leading to higher satisfaction levels.
So far, the company has robots that can carry 800-pound carts, redirect packages, as well as specifically recognize, identify and handle items in the warehouse.
Since relying more on automation, Amazon states that it has created over 1 million new jobs and 700 new job categories.
