Amazon plans to reduce its workforce by 4%, a move representing 14,000 jobs. The news, confirmed on 28 October 2025 by senior vice-president Beth Galetti following earlier rumours, was accompanied by the first layoff emails. The multinational employs about 1.54 million people globally, including warehouse and logistics staff, making it the second-largest private employer in the United States. Although these cuts amount to a small fraction of Amazon’s total workforce, they mark the company’s largest reduction of office staff since the 2022–2023 period, when around 27,000 jobs were eliminated.
US media reports say the layoffs affect several divisions. The most impacted is the People eXperience and Technology division, which will see a 15% reduction—around 1,500 jobs out of 10,000. Led by Beth Galetti herself, the division includes recruitment teams, HR technology, and traditional human resources roles.
Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing arm, had already undergone major job cuts in July 2025, when hundreds of staff across marketing, analytics, training, and AI roles were laid off. Other divisions hit include Operations, Devices and Services (responsible for products such as Echo, Alexa and Ring), and various roles within the retail organisation. According to sources, most layoffs are taking place in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, with notification emails starting with the line “Your position has been eliminated”.
According to Galetti’s statement and leaked email drafts cited by US media, Amazon has introduced support measures for affected employees. Most will have 90 days to find a new internal position, with recruiters prioritising internal candidates to help as many as possible secure new roles within the company. Those unable or unwilling to stay will receive a transition package including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits and other forms of assistance.
Generative artificial intelligence is the key element in Amazon’s restructuring strategy. In an internal memo published in June 2025, CEO Andy Jassy said the technology would radically change the way the company works and the make-up of its workforce. He explained that Amazon would need fewer people for some of today’s tasks but more people for new kinds of roles.
Amazon has developed or is deploying more than a thousand generative AI-based tools and applications, though Jassy emphasised that this represents only “a small fraction” of what the company plans to build. AI is already being used in inventory optimisation, customer service automation, the elimination of routine tasks, software development, analytics and research.
As for warehouse operations, Amazon is rapidly expanding automation. The New York Times recently reported that internal company documents envisage a reduction of up to 600,000 warehouse jobs in the United States by 2033, despite a projected doubling of sales. The plan would automate 75% of operations, cutting 30 cents from the cost of each item stored and shipped. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel responded that the leaked documents “paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans” and do not reflect the company’s overall hiring strategy.
Amazon is not alone in this shift. Microsoft has already cut around 15,000 jobs, Intel has announced between 21,000 and 25,000 layoffs (15–24% of its workforce), Meta has eliminated about 3,600 positions (5% of its staff), including 600 in its AI division, and Google has implemented multiple smaller rounds of cuts across cloud, design and other departments.
