Is Amazon Cutting Jobs to Build a Smarter, More Efficient Future?
Journey Tribune – Amazon is preparing to launch another sweeping round of layoffs that could see as many as 30,000 corporate positions eliminated, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The move represents one of the largest job reductions in the technology sector this year and reflects the company’s ongoing effort to tighten spending and simplify its sprawling corporate structure.
The job cuts, which are expected to begin on Tuesday, would amount to roughly 10 percent of Amazon’s corporate workforce of about 350,000 employees. While that represents only a small portion of its total global staff of 1.55 million, it would still mark Amazon’s most significant downsizing since late 2022, when the company trimmed around 27,000 roles following a period of rapid expansion during the pandemic.
Amazon has declined to comment publicly on the reported layoffs. However, people with direct knowledge of the matter say that the reductions will touch several key divisions, including human resources—known internally as People Experience and Technology, or PXT—along with devices, services, operations, and even parts of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s highly profitable cloud computing arm. Managers overseeing affected departments were reportedly asked on Monday to participate in training sessions on how to communicate the upcoming changes to employees, ahead of official email notifications scheduled to be sent out Tuesday morning.
Sources say the cuts are part of a larger plan by Chief Executive Andy Jassy to make Amazon more agile and efficient. Since taking over from founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, Jassy has been outspoken about what he sees as excessive layers of bureaucracy within the company. Earlier this year, he introduced an anonymous feedback channel designed to identify inefficiencies across departments, which drew more than 1,500 responses and prompted over 450 changes to internal processes.
The decision to cut tens of thousands of corporate roles also underscores the growing role of artificial intelligence within Amazon’s operations. Jassy has previously acknowledged that advances in AI and automation will inevitably reshape the company’s workforce by streamlining repetitive and routine tasks. Analysts say the latest layoffs likely indicate that Amazon is beginning to realize tangible productivity gains from its AI investments. Sky Canaves, a senior analyst at eMarketer, said that Amazon appears to be “achieving enough AI-driven efficiency to justify a major reduction in staff, especially in support and administrative functions.” She added that the company faces mounting investor pressure to show that its long-term investments in artificial intelligence are translating into measurable financial benefits.
The layoffs also come as Amazon grapples with the effects of its strict return-to-office policy. Earlier this year, the company ordered most corporate employees to return to the office five days a week—one of the most rigid in the technology industry. Two sources familiar with the company’s internal discussions said that the policy was expected to lead to voluntary attrition, helping reduce headcount without large-scale layoffs. However, the plan failed to achieve that goal. As a result, some remote employees who continue to work far from Amazon offices are now being told that their lack of on-site attendance counts as a voluntary resignation, a move that allows the company to avoid paying severance packages.
The broader technology industry has also been hit by waves of job reductions this year as companies adjust to slower growth and tighter budgets. Data from Layoffs. Fyi, a site that tracks tech layoffs, shows that roughly 98,000 workers have lost their jobs in 2025 across 216 tech companies. That follows a total of 153,000 layoffs in 2024, underscoring the ongoing recalibration of the sector after years of aggressive hiring.
Amazon’s financial picture remains complex. Its cloud computing division, AWS, continues to serve as its largest profit driver but has been losing ground to competitors. AWS posted second-quarter revenue of $30.9 billion, a 17.5 percent increase from the previous year, but that growth trailed Microsoft’s Azure, which climbed 39 percent, and Google Cloud, which rose 32 percent. Analysts expect AWS to report an 18 percent year-over-year sales gain for the third quarter, slightly slower than last year’s 19 percent growth. The division also suffered a 15-hour outage last week that disrupted major online platforms, including Snapchat and Venmo.
Despite the corporate downsizing, Amazon is still preparing for what it expects to be another strong holiday season. The company plans to hire about 250,000 seasonal workers to support its warehouses and logistics operations, matching hiring levels from the previous two years. In a separate internal reorganization, Amazon recently overhauled a portion of its People Experience and Technology unit that manages diversity and inclusion efforts, promoting several employees into new roles.
Shares of Amazon rose 1.2 percent to close at $226.97 on Monday. The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday, when investors are expected to seek more clarity on the scale and financial impact of the latest layoffs.
