Amazon announced on Tuesday that it reducing its corporate workforce by approximately 14,000 positions as part of a broader restructuring tied to its accelerated investment in artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure.
The cuts represent around 4 % of its estimated 350,000 corporate employees. The company’s total workforce is about 1.55 million.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience & Technology, said in a memo to staff that the move is “a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs.”
Affected employees will be given 90 days to apply internally for other roles at Amazon, and recruiting teams will prioritise those internal candidates. For those who do not find a role, the company will offer severance pay, benefits and outplacement support.
Although the company continues to hire in “key strategic areas,” the cuts are part of an effort to streamline operations and reposition the workforce amid new technological realities. CEO Andy Jassy had previously flagged in June that expanded use of generative AI would likely shrink the corporate workforce over the coming years.
Analysts note the move comes after a run-up in hiring during the pandemic that led to operational redundancies. Some reports suggest Amazon could reduce up to 30,000 corporate roles over time — nearly 10 % of its corporate workforce.
From the outside, this looks like one of Amazon’s most significant workforce reductions since the cuts of 27,000 roles in late 2022 and early 2023.
