Amazon Slashes 16,000 Jobs in Latest Restructuring Wave Amid AI-Driven Shifts
Amazon has announced plans to cut approximately 16,000 corporate and technology roles, marking the second major wave of layoffs since last fall and intensifying the tech sector’s ongoing restructuring trend.[1][2][3][4]
In a company-wide memo, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, explained the moves as efforts to “strengthen” the organization by “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy.” This follows a similar round of 14,000 cuts in October, bringing total layoffs since autumn to around 30,000—roughly 9% of Amazon’s corporate workforce of about 350,000 employees.[1][4][5]
Focus on Corporate Roles, Potential India Impact
The latest reductions primarily target white-collar workers, with reports indicating a shift toward operations in India, differing from previous U.S.-focused cuts.[2] An Amazon employee even used the company’s internal AI tool, Pippin, to analyze Slack conversations and compile a list of potentially affected teams, including AWS, Alexa, Bedrock, Redshift, ProServe, Prime, and last-mile Delivery Experience.[5] While AI-generated and unverified by Amazon, the list highlights internal speculation amid the chaos.[5]
Amazon emphasizes support for impacted workers, offering U.S. employees 90 days to seek internal roles, followed by severance, outplacement services, and health benefits. Internationally, timing varies by local requirements.[4] The company insists these are not recurring “broad reductions every few months” but ongoing adjustments for efficiency.[4]
AI and Automation as Underlying Forces
Though Amazon denies AI as the direct cause for most cuts, the layoffs align with broader industry shifts toward automation and generative AI.[1][3] Galetti previously described AI as the “most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet,” necessitating a leaner structure to “move as quickly as possible.”[1]
Experts like Rutgers Business School’s Zeki Pagda note companies are reallocating resources to data, automation, and analytics, as retraining logistics workers for AI roles proves challenging.[1] Broader trends see peers like Microsoft, Meta, and Verizon also trimming staff amid the AI boom.[1] Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns AI could displace half of entry-level white-collar jobs in 1-5 years, potentially spiking unemployment to 10-20%.[3]
This wave coincides with massive profits: Amazon reported $56.4 billion in the first nine months of 2025 and $180 billion in Q3 revenue, up 13% year-over-year.[3] Yet, Challenger, Gray & Christmas data shows U.S. employers axed over 1.2 million jobs in 2025—the most since post-2008— with hiring at a 2010 low.[3]
Market Reaction and Future Outlook
Amazon stock (AMZN) dipped 0.42% on Monday amid the news but remains up 3.18% year-to-date and 1.59% over 12 months, with Wall Street’s consensus a Strong Buy and a $295.05 price target implying 23.51% upside.[2] Reports suggest more cuts could push total 2026 reductions to nearly 30,000, surpassing the 27,000 from 2022-2023.[2]
Meanwhile, Amazon continues hiring in strategic areas like AI, cloud, and education initiatives, including billions in infrastructure and new AI shopping assistants.[4] UPS’s parallel announcement of up to 30,000 cuts via automated mega-hubs underscores logistics’ transformation, atop 48,000 eliminated in 2025.[3]
Echoes of Past Downturns
These layoffs evoke Amazon’s 2022-2023 restructuring, when 27,000 jobs were cut amid post-pandemic adjustments. Critics argue capitalism perverts revolutionary tech like AI into job-killing tools, imposing speedups on shrinking workforces despite record profits.[3]
As tech giants race for AI dominance, workers face uncertainty. Amazon’s moves signal a pivot to agility in a hyper-competitive landscape, but at significant human cost.[1][3]