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UPDATE (1/28): Amazon has announced it is cutting approximately 16,000 roles across the company. This comes just three months after it cut 14,000 jobs and warned that further reductions were on the way.
The reason for the new round of layoffs is the same as the last one: "reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy."
Beth Galetti, Amazon's head of HR, said that these cuts won't be a recurring event. "That’s not our plan. But just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate. That’s never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever," the executive added.
One thing she didn't mention: AI. In her October layoff memo, Galetti argued that AI was allowing companies like Amazon to "innovate much faster than ever before." CEO Andy Jassy later said the job cuts were due to "culture," not AI.
Those being laid off will have 90 days to find a different role within Amazon. If they are unable to do so, they will receive severance pay, outplacement support, and applicable health benefits.
This week, the company also announced it is shutting down all its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores. It will now shift its investment focus toward 100 new Whole Foods stores over the next five years.
Original Story (1/23):
When Amazon cut 14,000 corporate jobs in October, it warned that more layoffs were coming in 2026. According to Reuters, that round is set to begin next week and, once again, will sweep away thousands of jobs.
The exact number of job cuts in the latest round is unclear, but sources tell Reuters it could be on par with the last round as part of Amazon’s broader plan to eliminate 30,000 corporate jobs. Departments expected to take a hit include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Prime Video, human resources, and retail.
Although 30,000 represents a small portion of Amazon’s 1.58 million global workforce, it accounts for 10% of its corporate staff, the report adds. Most other employees work in warehouses and fulfillment centers.
In October, CEO Andy Jassy argued that the layoffs weren’t driven by financial struggles or AI development. “It’s culture,” he noted. However, Beth Galetti, head of HR at Amazon, said in a memo to employees that "This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and...we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business."
In a June memo to workers, meanwhile, Jassy warned that generative AI and AI agents would change the way people work at Amazon.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” he added.