The news: Amazon filed a state notice to temporarily close its fulfillment center in Port St. Lucie, Florida. It will cut about 494 jobs and spend roughly $200 million to rebuild the site around robotics. The project is expected to take about two years.
The job cuts begin this fall and run into the winter. Amazon says it will reopen the site, coded PBI3, as an automated facility.
The pattern: This is Amazon’s second Florida closure of the year.
Homestead: Amazon is cutting more than 600 jobs as it closes a fulfillment center that opened in 2024 for a robotics rebuild
Port St. Lucie: Amazon is cutting 494 jobs and spending about $200 million to rebuild the fulfillment center around robotics. The site will stay closed for two years
Together, the two closures affect more than 1,100 Florida workers. Nationally, Amazon has filed plans to cut at least 8,000 warehouse jobs across nine states this year, according to Newsweek.
Why: CEO Andy Jassy has tied Amazon’s robotics push to lower cost. In his shareholder letter, Jassy said automation delivers “improved site safety, higher productivity and lower cost to serve,” and called it a “step-level change” in how Amazon fills orders.
The contrast: Walmart has retrofitted 23 of its 42 regional distribution centers without taking them offline, according to its latest earnings. Amazon is closing each site for two years, evidence the rebuild reaches into the building's structure rather than running as a live retrofit.
The catch: Amazon calls the closures temporary. The federal WARN Act, which governs the filings, treats layoffs lasting more than six months as permanent. In Homestead, Miami-Dade County has voted to pursue legal action over an incentive deal tied to the jobs lost in the closure.
What's next: The first job cuts take effect this fall.
