E-commerce giant Amazon has reportedly begun a new wave of layoffs, cutting up to 30,000 corporate jobs across multiple divisions in what insiders describe as the company’s most significant restructuring effort since 2022. The layoffs, representing around 10 per cent of its corporate workforce, are part of an ongoing plan to streamline operations and address overhiring during the pandemic, according to Reuters.
While the cuts will impact Amazon’s corporate staff of roughly 350,000, they make up only a fraction of the company’s 1.55 million global employees, which include warehouse and logistics personnel.
The layoffs are expected to affect several key departments, including People Experience and Technology (PXT), Amazon’s human resources wing, along with operations, devices and services, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Managers within these divisions were reportedly briefed on Monday on how to communicate the developments to their teams, with official email notifications scheduled to go out Tuesday morning.
An Amazon spokesperson has declined to comment publicly on the scale or scope of the job cuts.
The move aligns with the restructuring agenda driven by Chief Executive Andy Jassy, who has emphasised the need to flatten organisational hierarchies and eliminate redundant management layers.
Jassy has previously introduced an anonymous internal feedback system, which has already resulted in over 450 procedural changes aimed at reducing bureaucracy. His leadership has focused on efficiency, automation, and tighter cost controls, as Amazon adjusts to slower growth after the post-pandemic e-commerce boom.
Earlier this year, Jassy noted that artificial intelligence (AI) would play a greater role in automating routine corporate tasks, a development analysts now believe is enabling the company to reduce headcount more aggressively without major disruptions.
Reports indicate that Amazon’s return-to-office (RTO) policy, implemented earlier this year, did not lead to the voluntary attrition the company had anticipated. This, combined with AI-driven productivity tools, has prompted leadership to reassess staffing levels across departments.
The latest cuts reflect a broader trend among tech giants, leveraging automation to offset personnel costs while optimising human capital in core innovation areas like cloud services, logistics, and AI development.
Despite the sweeping layoffs, Amazon remains focused on the upcoming holiday shopping season, maintaining its plan to hire 250,000 seasonal workers across fulfillment centers and delivery operations, consistent with previous years.
Following news of the restructuring, Amazon’s shares rose by 1.2 per cent to $226.97 on Monday (October 27), reflecting investor confidence in the company’s renewed cost discipline. Analysts expect further insight during Amazon’s third-quarter earnings announcement on Thursday, where executives are likely to discuss the impact of automation, cost management, and growth in cloud and AI divisions.
Amazon’s 2025 layoffs mark its biggest corporate downsizing since the 2022 job cuts, which affected nearly 27,000 employees across various departments.
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