Key takeaways
- 10% of corporate staff: The 30,000 planned cuts between October 2025 and January 2026 represent a small portion of Amazon’s roughly 1.58 million total employees, as the majority work in fulfillment centers.
- The layoffs are aimed at enhancing Amazon’s long-term efficiency, occurring even as the company remains profitable. This move prioritizes operational effectiveness over addressing financial shortfalls.
- NOT A NEW RHYTHM: Executives clarified that this is not intended to be a recurring monthly event, though further adjustments may be made as needed. This assurance transitions to the immediate timeline and effects for staff.
The layoffs begin on Wednesday. Impacted staff have 90 days to seek new internal roles.
Amazon Has Announced An Additional 16,000 Job Cuts
These cuts primarily affect corporate roles in Amazon Web Services (AWS), retail, and human resources. This is the second major round of layoffs within three months, the first occurring in October 2025 when 14,000 positions were eliminated, including the newly announced reduction. Amazon will have cut nearly 30,000 corporate employees in this period, representing about 10% of its corporate workforce.
Although demand for cloud computing and advancements in AI remain, these divisions are being reduced as Amazon moves toward greater efficiency and automation while adjusting to pandemic-related hiring. This context helps explain the recent focus on reorganization.
Why AWS and Retail Are Shrinking
- CEO Andy Jassy has stated that AI tools will allow the company to operate with fewer corporate staff as AI takes on more routine tasks and coding duties.
- Cutting bureaucracy and layers: The layoffs aim to eliminate management layers added during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jassy stated. The goal is to return to being the world’s largest start-up through prioritizing speed and reducing bureaucracy.
- Amazon is allocating more than $100B to data centers and AI capabilities. Savings from workforce reductions are directed to support AI infrastructure.
- These cuts allow the closure of Amazon Fresh and Go stores that did not meet performance expectations as the company moves to a leaner retail model.
- Ending pandemic over hiring: Amazon is reducing its corporate workforce to better match current market conditions after rapid growth during the pandemic.
The role of AI in the layoffs
- AI serves as an efficiency tool, not simply a replacement for jobs. While some interpret the cuts as AI-driven job losses, Amazon’s leadership maintains that AI enhances workforce productivity, enabling the company to achieve more with fewer staff.
- AI usage in performance: Employees report that their use of AI tools is monitored, and that they are expected to use them to compensate for reduced staffing.
- Investment priority: This shift signals a strategic shift away from traditional roles, focusing investment on the AI race with competitors such as Google and Microsoft.
On Wednesday, Amazon confirmed 16,000 new corporate job cuts, completing a plan to eliminate approximately 30,000 positions since the first round of layoffs in October 2025. The company indicated that further reductions are possible after these actions over the next several months.
Reuters reported last week that Amazon was planning a second round of job cuts, following earlier reductions since October, as part of CEO Andy Jassy’s efforts to reduce bureaucracy and discontinue underperforming businesses.
On Tuesday, ahead of the Wednesday announcement of job cuts, Amazon announced it will close its remaining Fresh grocery stores and Go markets and discontinue the Amazon One biometric payment system.
While 30,000 jobs are a small part of Amazon’s 1.58 million employees, they represent about 10% of the corporate workforce and mark the largest job cuts in the company’s history, surpassing reductions between late 2020 and early 2023.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Chief Human Resources Officer, stated that the company needs to cut jobs by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy.
Galetti indicated the company may implement more reductions, noting that some teams will make adjustments as appropriate.
These are Amazon’s second major layoffs in three months, following 14,000 job eliminations in October, attributed to AI and cultural shifts.
Amazon also acknowledged that it overhired during the COVID-19 pandemic when online shopping demand surged. Some of you might think this is the beginning of a new rhythm in which we announce broad reductions every few months.ths. Beth Galetti said in Wednesday’s note. That’s not our plan she said.
Project Dawn
On Tuesday, Amazon mistakenly sent an email referring to the layoff as a project affecting some Amazon Web Services staff, raising concerns among thousands of employees.
The full extent of the cuts is unclear, but employees from various AWS units, including Alexa, Prime Video devices, advertising, last-mile delivery, Kindle, and supply logistics optimization, reported being affected.
Amazon, which began corporate job cuts on Tuesday by announcing plans to close the Fresh and Go stores, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. It also illustrates how artificial intelligence is changing corporate workforce dynamics. Major advances in AI assistance are helping enterprises execute tasks, from routine administrative tasks to complex development problems, with rapid speed and accuracy, driving widespread adoption.
Jassy stated last summer that the company’s increased use of AI tools would lead to greater automation and corporate job losses.
Executives at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos said last week that while some jobs will be lost, new roles will emerge. Two executives told Reuters that some companies may use AI as a justification for planned job cuts. Microsoft opens a new tab. Sharply ramped up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic surge and has recently been restructuring. UPS, Pinterest, and ASML all announced staff reductions in recent days.
Amazon has invested in robotics at its warehouses to accelerate packaging and deliveries, reduce reliance on human labor, and lower costs.
Amazon shares fell 2.1% in regular trading on Wednesday ahead of its quarterly results next week.
