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Amazon is preparing to cut 14,000 corporate roles, marking the largest reduction in the company’s history and reversing the hiring surge that took place during the pandemic.
The layoffs, expected to begin Tuesday, will affect just under 5% of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate employees.
Initial reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal estimated that up to 30,000 roles could be cut.
Although Amazon's confirmation of 14,000 affected roles fall short of this estimate, and the firm has not offically confirmed a broader layoff plan, a companywide email indicated the possibility of further cuts.
Pandemic gains reversed
The Seattle-based online retailer hired aggressively during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when demand for online shopping soared. But as consumer habits normalized, Amazon has faced pressure to scale back and refocus on efficiency.
While the planned job cuts represent a small share of Amazon’s global headcount of 1.55 million, they mark a significant shift for a company long seen as an engine of white-collar tech employment. CNBC described the move as Amazon’s largest layoff to date.
Other tech giants including Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet have also reversed pandemic-era hiring expansions, eliminating tens of thousands of positions since 2022.
AI and automation reshape roles
CEO Andy Jassy has previously cautioned that the rise of AI could alter the company’s staffing needs. In a June memo to employees, he said AI agents and generative systems would eventually “reduce our total corporate workforce.”
“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time,” Jassy wrote, “but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.”
The anticipated cuts will reach across multiple divisions, including human resources, known internally as people experience and technology, devices, services, and operations. Fortune reported that as many as 15% of HR roles could be eliminated.
Managers within affected units were briefed Monday on how to communicate with employees following notification emails expected to be sent Tuesday morning, according to Reuters.
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Reducing bureaucracy and refocusing efficiency
Jassy has been working to trim layers of management and eliminate inefficiencies. Earlier this year, he said an anonymous complaint line designed to identify bureaucratic obstacles had generated about 1,500 submissions, resulting in more than 450 process changes.
In recent years, Amazon has also made smaller reductions across its devices, communications, and podcasting teams, signalling a gradual effort to tighten operations even before this latest wave of cuts.
The upcoming layoffs underscore a broader transition as Amazon redefines its corporate structure to balance human talent with AI-driven productivity.
This article has been updated correcting an initial estimate that 30,000 roles would be cut.
