New Delhi: Amazon is preparing for a fresh round of layoffs that could impact thousands of corporate employees as early as next week. The move is part
of the company’s broader plan to reduce its white-collar workforce by around 30,000 roles, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters. If executed as planned, this would mark one of the biggest workforce reductions in the company’s history.
The cuts will impact various units within the business such as cloud, retail, entertainment and human resources. Although Amazon has not officially announced the plans, it was suggested that the layoffs would be mostly corporate-level and managerial positions, even though the company is still in the process of trying to streamline its internal organization and cut down on expenses following years of booming growth.
What teams might be affected
As the report indicates, positions in white-collar jobs within the Amazon Web Services, Prime Video, retail activities, and the People Experience and Technology unit will probably be impacted. It was warned that the ultimate extent and date of the layoffs might still vary.
Amazon had already lost approximately 14,000 corporate positions in October last year, which is about half of the 30,000 it claimed. The scale of upcoming cuts will be similar, and the company will be brought closer to its overall reduction objective.
Amazon’s workforce in numbers
A report by Bloomberg in September 2025 indicates that Amazon has approximately 1.57 million employees around the world. A majority of these employees are in the warehouses and logistics. The corporate workforce of the company was estimated around 350, 000 persons.
A reduction of 30,000 roles would represent roughly 10% of Amazon’s corporate headcount. If completed, it would be the company’s largest layoff in three decades, surpassing the 27,000 job cuts announced in 2022.
What happens to affected employees
Employees laid off in the October round were placed on payroll for 90 days, during which they could apply for internal roles or search for jobs outside the company. That transition period is set to end on January 26, 2026. A similar approach is expected for those impacted in the upcoming cuts.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the reported plans.
Are the cuts driven by AI?
Reuters noted that earlier layoffs were linked to Amazon’s growing use of artificial intelligence to automate tasks and improve efficiency. An internal memo reportedly described AI as the most transformative technology since the internet.
However, during a recent earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the job cuts were not directly driven by AI or short-term financial pressure. Instead, he pointed to organisational complexity and excessive management layers. Jassy has previously stated that Amazon’s corporate workforce is likely to shrink over time as AI tools continue to boost productivity across the company.
