Amazon Confirms 16,000 Layoffs To Remove ‘Bureaucracy’; Says No Plans For More Cuts Ahead

“We’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy. While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now,” said Amazon’s Beth Galetti confirming the 16,000 layoffs.

Amazon has confirmed it is laying off 16,000 corporate employees this week as the $180 billion tech giant says the massive cuts are needed “in a world that’s changing faster than ever,” according to senior vice president Beth Galetti.

“As I shared in October, we’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” said Galetti, Amazon’s SVP of People Experience and Technology, in a message to employees today.

“While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now,” she added.

In October, Seattle-based Amazon laid off 14,000 corporate employees, citing organizational changes and AI transformation part of the reasoning behind the layoffs. Those 14,000 layoffs included senior program managers and principal designers to applied scientists and software engineers.

This makes Amazon’s layoff headcount total roughly 30,000 over the past four months.

Monthly Layoffs ‘Not Our Plan,’ Amazon Says

Galetti said Amazon will continue to hire and invest in strategic areas, so employees shouldn’t expect constant mass firings every few months.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm—where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan,” Galetti said.

“Every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate,” she said. “That’s never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever.”

Amazon Reducing 4.5 Percent Of Corporate Staff

Amazon had around 1.578 million employees as of Sept. 30, 2025, the majority of whom work in warehouses and operations. Those employees will not be directly affected by the new 16,000 layoff round.

Its corporate staff numbers roughly 350,000, making the latest layoffs about 4.5 percent of that workforce.

“The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we’re again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted,” said Galetti.

Amazon will offer most U.S.-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally.

27,000 Amazon Layoffs In 2022 And 2023

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s tenure has been marked by several rounds of employee layoffs and the closure of underperforming projects since he took over in 2021.

Between late 2022 and early 2023, the company eliminated about 27,000 corporate roles as part of restructuring efforts.

During Amazon’s third quarter financial earnings report, Amazon’s CEO weighed-in on October’s 14,000 layoff round.

“The [layoff] announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven and it’s not even really AI-driven, not right now at least. It really—its culture,” Jassy said.

“If you grow as fast as we did for several years—the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in—you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers,” Jassy said.

Amazon is set to conduct their fourth quarter 2025 financial earnings call in early February. Wall Street expects that Amazon’s total revenue will exceed $211 billion with profits of over $21 billion.