Amazon announced Tuesday that it plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs, marking one of the biggest rounds of layoffs in the company's history.
Amazon's senior vice president of people experience and technology, Beth Galetti, announced the cuts in a blog post and said the reductions are a continuation of CEO Andy Jassy's drive to operate the company "like the world's largest startup."
Galetti said that despite the company performing well, it is cutting jobs as a result of AI rapidly changing the world.
"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 (in existing market segments and altogether new ones)," Galetti wrote.
She added that Amazon needs to be leaner and have fewer layers of management in order to move faster, noting that it is reorganizing resources to invest in its biggest bets while continuing to hire in other areas.
Amazon has a total of 1.55 million employees globally. The cuts would represent about 4% of Amazon's roughly 350,000 corporate employees.
The latest move is part of Jassy's effort to create a leaner and more disciplined company. In recent years, Amazon cut management layers, slashed bureaucracy, tightened costs, overhauled performance and pay systems, and ordered most corporate employees back to the office five days a week.
The changes really started after the pandemic, when Amazon's growth slowed. The company moved to rein in costs by axing unprofitable projects and cutting a bloated workforce.
Jassy said in June that AI-driven efficiency gains would shrink Amazon's workforce. Earlier this year, the company froze the hiring budget in its massive retail division, and in July, its cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, also faced layoffs.
Big Tech firms have cut thousands of jobs this year, even as their businesses continue to perform well, as they double down on investments in AI. Microsoft announced plans to eliminate around 15,000 positions this year, with CEO Satya Nadella telling employees in a June memo that the company must remain focused on its three core priorities: security, quality, and AI transformation. Meta has also made AI-driven layoffs, informing staff in its risk organization last week that their roles are being replaced by automation technology.
Read the full memo from Amazon announcing the cuts:
I want to let you know that we're making organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates. There will be communications from leaders to those teams and individuals today, but we also wanted to share the broader context about what's happening and why. Last year, Andy posted a note about strengthening our culture and teams — explaining how we want to operate like the world's largest startup, the importance of having the right structure to drive that level of speed and ownership, and the need to be set up to invent, collaborate, be connected, and deliver the absolute best for customers. Many of you have put significant effort into that work of strengthening your organizations by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and helping reduce bureaucracy. We're already seeing the results, with teams moving faster and many Amazonians feeling more ownership, and the S-team and I appreciate all the work you've done. The reductions we're sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we're investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers' current and future needs. While this will include reducing in some areas and hiring in others, it will mean an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles. We're working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted, including offering most employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (the timing will vary some based on local laws), and our recruiting teams will prioritize internal candidates to help as many people as possible find new roles within Amazon. For our teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we'll offer them transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, and more. Looking ahead to 2026, as Andy talked about earlier this year, we expect to continue hiring in key strategic areas while also finding additional places we can remove layers, increase ownership, and realize efficiency gains. Some may ask why we're reducing roles when the company is performing well. Across our businesses, we're delivering great customer experiences every day, innovating at a rapid rate, and producing strong business results. What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly. 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 (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We're convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business. I don't know of any other company with the breadth of Amazon, the number of exciting bold bets we're making, and all the ways we can make customers lives better and easier around the world. I'm inspired by what I see across the company every day, and the S-team and I appreciate all that you do. Beth
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