Amazon to cut 16,000 more jobs as restructuring drive deepens

Amazon said on Wednesday that it will eliminate about 16,000 jobs worldwide, extending a restructuring program that began in October and bringing the company’s planned corporate workforce reductions to roughly 30,000 roles.

The latest cuts mark Amazon’s second major round of layoffs in three months and reflect efforts to streamline operations following rapid pandemic-era hiring while reshaping teams as artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded across the business.

In October, Amazon cut around 14,000 corporate positions after chief executive Andy Jassy said the company needed to reduce excess management layers and internal bureaucracy that had accumulated during years of aggressive expansion. The newly announced reductions are expected to affect employees across several divisions, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), retail, Prime Video, and human resources.

Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said the company was continuing work to “reduce layers, increase ownership, and remove bureaucracy.” She noted that while some teams completed restructuring plans in October, others finalized changes more recently. Galetti added that Amazon does not intend for large-scale layoffs to become a regular occurrence, though teams will continue to review their structures and make adjustments when necessary.

The job cuts come as Amazon pushes to improve efficiency while accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence across its operations. Jassy has previously told employees that increased use of AI tools would automate certain tasks and gradually lead to a smaller corporate workforce.

Despite the scale of the reductions, the layoffs represent a small fraction of Amazon’s total workforce of more than 1.5 million employees worldwide, the majority of whom work in warehouses and fulfillment centers. Corporate staff account for only a limited portion of that total.

Amazon’s move mirrors a broader trend across the technology sector, where companies that expanded rapidly during the pandemic are now cutting costs, flattening management structures, and redirecting spending towards AI, automation, and data infrastructure. Alongside workforce changes, Amazon has been increasing investment in warehouse robotics to boost delivery speeds and reduce labor intensity, while committing billions of dollars to data centers and infrastructure to support AI-driven services, particularly within AWS.

Amazon is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings next week, with investors closely watching how cost-cutting efforts and AI investments are shaping the company’s performance and outlook.