Amazon has confirmed it will cut roughly 16,000 jobs this week, hours after an internal email about planned layoffs was accidentally sent to employees
on Tuesday, January 27. The announcement marks the second major reduction in the company’s workforce within three months and underscores ongoing cost-cutting and restructuring efforts. The mistakenly sent email, shared with cloud employees, briefly detailed “organisational changes”. It noted that impacted colleagues had already been notified, and referenced Amazon HR chief Beth Galetti. The note was quickly pulled, fueling further speculation among employees across Slack, Reddit, and Blind about the scale and timing of the layoffs. Colleen Aubrey, Senior Vice President of Applied AI Solutions at Amazon Web Services (AWS), later clarified that the cuts were being made thoughtfully to position AWS for “future success,” stressing the decisions were difficult but necessary. The upcoming reductions are expected to hit AWS, Prime Video, Retail, and People Experience and Technology divisions most heavily. Employees in India, particularly in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, could face sharper impacts compared with earlier rounds. The October 2025 layoffs affected about 14,000 employees, primarily in India across teams including Prime Video, devices, finance, and HR. If completed, this year’s cuts would bring total job reductions to around 30,000, the largest in Amazon’s history. Beyond Amazon, concerns are spreading to The Washington Post, also owned by Jeff Bezos, where over 100 newsroom positions may be eliminated, with up to 300 roles at risk globally. Journalists warn that cuts to foreign bureaus and core desks could weaken the paper’s international reporting at a time of severe geopolitical instability. Correspondents from Ukraine, India, and other regions have publicly appealed to Bezos, emphasising the unique value of on-the-ground coverage. This latest round highlights the growing trend of cost discipline across Bezos-led ventures. Whether in cloud computing, retail, or journalism, the emphasis on efficiency and automation is reshaping staffing strategies, even as employees and industry observers question the long-term impact on operational capacity and expertise.
Also Read: Tesla to invest $20 billion in AI, Robotaxis, and humanoid robots
