Kamal Ghorui
Amazon is preparing for another significant round of layoffs, with approximately 14,000 corporate positions set to be eliminated starting next week, according to Reuters. This would be Amazon’s second biggest layoff since October 2025, bringing the company’s total planned job cuts to around 30,000 roles—the largest layoff in Amazon’s three-decade history.The e-commerce giant initially cut about 14,000 white-collar jobs in October, and the upcoming round is expected to mirror that scale. Employees in Amazon Web Services (AWS), retail operations, Prime Video, and the human resources division—known internally as People Experience and Technology (PXT)—are among those likely to be affected, Reuters reported citing sources familiar with the matter.
CEO shifts narrative from AI to company culture
While Amazon’s October layoffs were initially attributed to the transformative impact of artificial intelligence, CEO Andy Jassy later clarified the real motivation during a third-quarter earnings call. “It’s not really financially driven and it’s not even really AI-driven. It’s culture,” Jassy explained, pointing to excessive bureaucracy and organizational bloat as the primary concerns.The contradictory messaging, analysts say, highlights Amazon’s struggle to communicate its restructuring strategy. In an October memo, the company had described AI as “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet,” suggesting it was driving faster innovation and organizational changes. However, Jassy’s subsequent comments reframed the cuts as an effort to eliminate layers of management and restore the company’s startup-like agility.
Workforce reduction amid strong business performance
The planned reductions represent nearly 10% of Amazon’s approximately 350,000 corporate employees, though they account for less than 2% of the company’s total 1.58 million workforce, most of whom work in warehouses and fulfillment centers.Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of PXT, acknowledged the paradox in an internal memo: “Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well.” She emphasized that staying competitive requires being “organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership.”Affected employees from the October round were given 90 days to find internal positions or seek external employment—a period that expires Monday. The company is offering similar support for the upcoming cuts, including severance pay, outplacement services, and extended health insurance benefits.Jassy has also implemented an anonymous complaint system to identify inefficiencies, which has generated over 1,500 responses and prompted more than 450 process changes. The CEO’s broader initiative includes a strict five-day in-office mandate, among the tech industry’s most stringent return-to-office policies, though sources told Reuters it hasn’t generated the voluntary attrition Amazon anticipated.
