Amazon is laying off another 16,000 corporate employees globally, the company confirmed Wednesday morning, the second phase in a restructuring that now totals 30,000 positions — adding up to the largest workforce reduction in the company’s history.
The company is “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” according to a memo to employees from Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, posted on the company’s blog.
The latest job cuts come after Amazon laid off about 14,000 workers in October. The company indicated at the time that more layoffs could occur in 2026 while noting it would continue to hire in key strategic areas.
“While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now,” Galetti wrote in the memo Wednesday morning.
However, Galetti sought to reassure employees that the company does not plan to make regular rounds of massive cuts. “Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months,” she wrote. “That’s not our plan.”
But she added that teams will continue to evaluate their operations and “make adjustments as appropriate,” saying that’s “never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever.”
The second round of layoffs was the worst-kept secret in tech. Multiple media reports said they were coming this week, and Amazon inadvertently spilled the beans in advance. Some employees received a calendar invitation Tuesday that appeared to have been sent prematurely, alluding to the upcoming cuts and referencing “Project Dawn,” an internal efficiency initiative, according to Business Insider.
Affected employees in the U.S. will have 90 days to search for new roles internally. Those who don’t find or don’t pursue another position at Amazon will receive severance pay, outplacement services, and continued health insurance benefits.
This week’s announcement, combined with the cuts in October, tops the 27,000 positions the company eliminated in 2023 across multiple rounds of layoffs.
It’s part of a broader reset for the company. Amazon on Tuesday announced that it will close all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery store locations. Last night, the company began informing customers that it’s discontinuing its Amazon One biometric palm recognition service, as well.
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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who replaced founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, has cited a need to reduce bureaucracy and become more efficient in the new era of artificial intelligence.
On the company’s third quarter earnings call, Jassy framed the October layoffs as a push to stay nimble, and said Amazon’s rapid growth over the past decade led to extra layers of management that slowed decision-making. He has said he wants Amazon to operate like the “world’s largest startup.”
Jassy also told employees in June that he expected Amazon’s total corporate workforce to shrink over time due to efficiency gains from AI.
Amazon’s corporate workforce numbered around 350,000 people in early 2023, the last time the company provided a public number. Amazon has an overall workforce of 1.57 million people, which includes workers in its warehouses.
The company employs around 50,000 corporate workers in the Seattle region, its primary headquarters. There were 2,303 corporate employees in Washington state that were laid off last year in October.
Amazon implemented a 5-day return-to-office policy at the beginning of last year for corporate employees, drawing pushback from some employees. The company’s workforce helps generate foot traffic for nearby small businesses near its office buildings.
Jon Scholes, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, said that a “workforce change of this scale has ripple effects on the community.”
“The tech ecosystem has been a key driver to our city’s growth and bolstered the tax coffers, which helped fuel our city’s investments in housing, public safety and economic development the last 20 years or so,” Scholes said in a statement. “As companies grapple with emerging trends, we hope this pain is short-term.”
Layoffs have hit various tech companies across the Seattle region over the past few years. Meta cut 331 positions earlier this month. Microsoft laid off more than 3,200 employees in Washington state last year, part of broader cuts that impacted 15,000 people globally.
Amazon reports its latest quarterly earnings on Feb. 5. The company’s stock underperformed relative to the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants last year. Some analysts predict that Amazon’s cloud unit will help boost the stock as AI demand rises. The company, along with other tech giants, is investing heavily in AI-related infrastructure.
Amazon reported about $1.8 billion in estimated severance costs related to its 14,000 corporate layoff announced in October.
