Amazon announced Wednesday that it plans to cut about 16,000 corporate jobs, marking the second major layoff since October last year.
in blog postthe company wrote that the layoffs are part of: Continuing efforts “Strengthening organizations by reducing hierarchy, increasing ownership, and eliminating bureaucracy.” It occurs at the same time as pushing to make a large investment With artificial intelligence.
The layoffs come just months after layoffs in October. When the number of employees is 14,000 Amazon’s entire corporate workforce was laid off. At the time, the company indicated that the cuts would continue into 2026 as it found “additional locations where layers can be removed.”
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, did not rule out further layoffs in the future, but said the company is not trying to create a “new rhythm” of large-scale layoffs every few months.
“That is not our plan,” Galetti wrote. “However, as always, each team will continue to evaluate ownership, speed, and ability to invent for our customers and make adjustments as needed.”
on tuesdaySome employees in Amazon’s cloud division received an email clearly sent in error acknowledging an “organizational change” at the company. The memo referenced Galetti’s post and said Amazon had notified “colleagues within the affected organization.”
Amazon had approximately 1.58 million employees as of the end of the third quarter. This figure is primarily made up of warehouse and logistics employees.
The 30,000 job cuts since October represent about 10% of the company’s roughly 350,000 corporate and technology employees.
Amazon has been in the midst of a major downsizing in recent years. company fired The company cut more than 27,000 employees from 2022 to 2023, and implemented smaller cuts across various organizations in 2024.
CEO Andy Jassy was considering slimming down the workforce after Amazon continued operations. sharp increase in employment It was also in response to a surge in demand for e-commerce and cloud computing services during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Jassy was also looking to reset Amazon’s corporate culture so that it could run like “the world’s largest startup.” He set internal goals to reduce layers of management and established “bureaucracy-free email aliases” to identify ways the company could innovate faster.
Amazon is also working to reduce costs across its operations as it increases investment in AI and rapidly ramping up its data centers. Earlier this week, the company With shutter After years of experimentation, the Fresh and Go grocery chain was born.
Last October, Amazon announced that it expected capital spending to reach $125 billion in 2026. highest spending forecast Even among mega-cap companies.
Jassy I said this in June of last year. Efficiency gains from AI are likely to reduce Amazon’s workforce in the coming years.
“There will be fewer people doing some of the jobs that are currently being done, and more people will be doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said at the time.