Amazon could potentially cut thousands of additional corporate positions

Amazon Set to Slash Thousands More Corporate Jobs

Amazon is reportedly on the verge of cutting thousands of additional corporate positions as soon as next week, marking an extension of one of the largest reductions of white-collar staff in the company’s history.

According to individuals familiar with the situation, as reported by Reuters, these upcoming layoffs would bring the total number of corporate jobs eliminated by Amazon to approximately 30,000. This follows an initial round of about 14,000 job cuts in October. The next phase, expected to be similar in scale, could begin as early as Tuesday.

If these plans proceed, the cuts would represent close to 10% of Amazon’s office-based workforce. Despite these reductions, Amazon still employs over 1.5 million people worldwide, the majority of whom work in warehouses and logistics rather than corporate offices.

The layoffs are anticipated to affect several divisions, including Amazon Web Services, retail operations, Prime Video, and human resources. Amazon has not issued a public comment regarding these reported plans.

The company previously described the October layoffs as part of a broader initiative to leverage artificial intelligence for automating internal processes and accelerating operations.

In a message to employees last year, Amazon stated that the current wave of AI innovation is the most significant technological shift since the advent of the Internet, enabling businesses to move and innovate at unprecedented speeds.

Earlier in 2025, CEO Andy Jassy remarked that he anticipated a gradual decrease in Amazon’s corporate headcount as AI-driven efficiencies take hold. This places Amazon among a growing number of companies using AI not only to develop new products but also to justify leaner office teams. From software development to customer service and internal management, leaders are increasingly asserting that automation can streamline or even replace entire categories of corporate work. A survey by Resume.org found that 40% of businesses plan to substitute some employees with AI in 2026.

However, Jassy has emphasized that the restructuring is as much about reducing management complexity as it is about implementing new technologies.

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Jassy explained that the decision was driven more by cultural considerations than by financial or technological factors. He noted that excessive layers of management had made Amazon too complicated, and that the aim is to create smaller teams and speed up decision-making—a sentiment echoed across the tech industry following years of rapid hiring and subsequent cost-cutting.

If carried out, these upcoming layoffs would surpass Amazon’s previous record set in 2022, when the company eliminated about 27,000 positions during a downturn in the tech sector.

Broader Industry Layoffs and the Impact of AI

Amazon is not alone in announcing significant job cuts for 2026. Other major companies—including Meta, Citi, BlackRock, Macy’s, and several logistics and warehousing firms—have collectively announced 5,450 layoffs. While there have been rumors of large-scale reductions at Microsoft, company executives have publicly denied plans for widespread layoffs.

Kara Dennison, head of career advising at Resume.org, predicts that the adoption of AI will transform the job market more dramatically over the next 18 to 24 months than at any time in recent decades. She anticipates ongoing displacement of routine and process-oriented roles, alongside the emergence of new jobs focused on AI oversight, data ethics, prompt engineering, and collaboration between humans and AI.

Last year, job growth slowed to its lowest rate since 2003. Employers cut more than 1.1 million positions through November—the highest total since 2020 and a 54% increase compared to the previous year, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This figure includes over 60,000 job cuts at companies such as Amazon, UPS, and Target, with many of these layoffs announced in October of last year.