Amazon plans to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs. The massive layoffs were expected as part of the company's cost-cutting efforts, but are less than the loss of 30,000 jobs. previous reports indicated.
Beth Galetti, a top executive at the e-commerce giant, broke the news to employees at message on Tuesday. “The cuts we're announcing today are a continuation of that work to emerge even stronger by further cutting bureaucracy, eliminating layers and shifting resources to ensure we're investing in our biggest bets and in what matters most to our customers' current and future needs,” Galetti said.
Galetti did not specify which roles were being eliminated or where they were located. Most employees will have 90 days to find a new job within the company, she said.
“Some may ask why we are cutting roles when the company is doing well,” Galetti wrote. “This generation of artificial intelligence is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet, and it allows companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and entirely new ones). We believe we need to be leaner.”
Galetti said Amazon expects to “continue hiring in key strategic areas” in 2026, but will also continue to look for areas where it can “implement efficiencies,” suggesting more job cuts could be on the horizon.
Amazon's last major round of job cuts occurred in late 2022 and early 2023. when 27,000 workers were fired.
Galetti's note mentions message from CEO Andy Jassy sent to employees in June. In it, the executive promotes generative artificial intelligence as the source of Amazon's desired efficiency gains (read job cuts) and as its strategic direction for products and services. The company has made it clear that it hopes to use automation, robotics and artificial intelligence as a means of reducing labor costs and ultimately replacing thousands of human workers.
