Amazon to slash corporate workforce by 10% next week

Amazon is preparing to carry out a second round of job cuts next week as part of a broader plan to reduce its corporate workforce by about 30,000 employees.

The upcoming cuts are expected to be of a similar scale and could begin as early as next week, Reuters first reported citing anonymous sources.

The reductions are expected to affect roles across Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video, and the human resources division known as People Experience and Technology, the people said, adding that the full scope of the cuts remains unclear.

The online retail titan eliminated roughly 14,000 white-collar roles in October, about half of the total reduction. Amazon previously linked the October layoffs to advances in artificial intelligence, saying in an internal letter that “this generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet, and it's enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.”

However, Chief Executive Andy Jassy later offered a different explanation during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, telling analysts that the move was “not really financially driven and it's not even really AI-driven.” Instead, he said, “it's culture,” arguing that the company had become overly bureaucratic.

Earlier in 2025, Jassy said he expected Amazon’s corporate workforce to shrink over time as efficiencies from AI adoption increased.

Although cutting 30,000 jobs would represent only a small fraction of Amazon’s total workforce of about 1.58 million employees, it would amount to nearly 10% of its corporate staff. Most of Amazon’s employees work in fulfillment centers and warehouses.

The reductions would mark the largest layoffs in Amazon’s three-decade history. Previous job cuts were carried out in multiple waves between 2022 and 2023, when the company eliminated 27,000 positions.

Employees affected in October were informed they would stay on the payroll for 90 days, during which they could apply for internal roles or seek jobs elsewhere.

Layoffs have continued across the tech sector this year as companies adjust to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and its financial impact, with major firms such as Microsoft and Meta also cutting thousands of jobs in recent months.

By Nazrin Sadigova