Amazon Cuts 16,000 Corporate Jobs in Second Round of Layoffs

SEATTLE — Amazon notified about 16,000 corporate employees early Wednesday that their positions are being eliminated, the second phase of a 30,000-person reduction the company began in October and the largest round of layoffs in its history.

Taken together, the cuts represent a significant retrenchment for the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud computing giant, which employs about 1.5 million people worldwide, the vast majority in warehouses and logistics. The reductions announced this week affect corporate staff.

Company Cites Bureaucracy

Amazon has said the reductions are aimed at right-sizing the organization and reducing layers of bureaucracy after it over-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s headcount roughly doubled between 2019 and 2024 as online shopping surged.

Some workers dispute that characterization. A former workforce planning employee told KUOW that the company “hired what we needed at the time” during the pandemic boom, and that demand for roles such as recruiting dropped sharply once growth slowed.

The AI Factor

Experts interviewed by KUOW said the repeated rounds of layoffs at Amazon and other large technology companies are intended in part to free up capital for multibillion-dollar data center projects needed to support artificial intelligence. While there is little evidence so far that AI is directly replacing jobs on a large scale, some Amazon employees said they are increasingly asked to rely on AI tools to make up for reduced headcount.

The shift marks a reversal from the decade-long competition for technical talent that defined the industry, in which companies offered rich compensation packages to attract engineers.

Return-to-Office Push

Amazon was among the first major employers to reverse pandemic-era remote work policies, requiring most corporate employees to return to the office five days a week and, in many cases, to relocate to designated hub locations. Some employees had moved away from headquarters cities during the remote-work era.

Industry-Wide Trend

Amazon’s cuts are part of a broader wave of reductions across the technology sector. Earlier this month, Meta announced layoffs of more than 1,000 workers in its Reality Labs division, along with the closure of several video game studios.

Major technology companies have collectively committed hundreds of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure, including chips, data centers and power supplies. Investors have generally rewarded cost-cutting measures that protect profit margins while that spending ramps up.

Washington state requires large employers to give advance notice of mass layoffs under its version of the federal WARN Act, and affected workers are typically offered severance and transition support.