Amazon is preparing to lay off as many as 30,000 corporate employees starting Tuesday, marking one of the largest cuts in its history as the company looks to rein in expenses after pandemic-era overhiring, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The cuts would affect nearly 10% of Amazon’s corporate workforce—around 350,000 employees—though it represents a small portion of the company’s overall staff of 1.55 million. The move would surpass Amazon’s previous major reduction of 27,000 jobs that began in late 2022.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
Divisions Impacted
The layoffs are expected to span multiple business units, including human resources (People Experience and Technology), devices and services, and operations. Managers overseeing affected teams reportedly received training Monday on how to communicate job eliminations to staff, ahead of email notifications beginning Tuesday morning.
Push to Eliminate Bureaucracy and Embrace AI
CEO Andy Jassy has been openly targeting inefficiencies. He has described a need to reduce excessive layers of management and launched an anonymous internal hotline to report inefficiencies—an initiative that he said led to “over 450 process changes.”
Jassy also signaled in June that the growing use of artificial intelligence to handle routine tasks would likely lead to further reductions. According to Sky Canaves, an analyst at eMarketer, “This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realizing enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force.”
Financial Context
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's most profitable division, has been facing slowing growth compared to cloud competitors. AWS reported second-quarter sales of $30.9 billion, a 17.5% gain—significantly below Microsoft Azure’s 39% increase and Google Cloud’s 32%.
Amazon shares were up 1.3% at $227.11 Monday afternoon. The company is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Seasonal Hiring Continues
Despite corporate cuts, Amazon expects a robust holiday season and will still move forward with hiring 250,000 seasonal workers, the same number it brought on in each of the past two years.
The total number of layoffs may shift depending on Amazon’s evolving financial priorities, according to people familiar with the matter.