Amazon is reportedly preparing to announce a sweeping series of workforce reductions that may affect thousands of positions across its corporate divisions. According to individuals with direct knowledge of the situation—as well as internal company communications and documentation reviewed by Business Insider—department heads have already been advised to prepare for a formal announcement expected later this week. Preliminary plans indicate that the company-wide message will likely be made public on Tuesday and will extend to corporate employees located not only in the United States but also across its major international offices in the United Kingdom and Canada. This information, described in several internal memos to Amazon managers, suggests a restructuring effort of considerable magnitude.
A draft of the email intended for employees whose roles will be impacted provides insight into Amazon’s reasoning behind the decision. In that internal communication, leadership explains that the forthcoming layoffs are the result of what it characterizes as a comprehensive and methodical review of the organization’s structure, strategic priorities, and long-term objectives. The document emphasizes that these actions are meant to ensure the company remains focused on its most essential business areas and growth opportunities in an increasingly competitive landscape. The same draft further outlines the terms of the severance package, which will grant affected employees continued pay and benefits for a full ninety-day period following the announcement. Business Insider reports having obtained copies of both this draft and the related managerial messages, which reinforce that the initiative is firmly backed by upper management.
Multiple departments across the company are expected to experience workforce reductions, including key units such as human resources and retail operations. Individuals familiar with the internal plans, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic, have indicated that the layoffs will likely number in the thousands. When approached for an official statement, an Amazon spokesperson did not provide a comment or response, underscoring the confidential and delicate nature of the situation as it unfolds.
This restructuring occurs amid a broader transformation being led by CEO Andy Jassy, who has been steering Amazon through a profound cultural and organizational overhaul throughout the year. Under Jassy’s leadership, the company has sought to recalibrate its internal ethos by dismantling some of the deeply ingrained norms that characterized Amazon’s earlier, more aggressive phase of growth. He has systematically eliminated multiple managerial layers in an effort to reduce bureaucracy, streamline communication, and restore agility to decision-making processes. His approach also includes enforcing tighter cost management, redefining performance evaluation models, reorganizing compensation systems, and reestablishing a near full-time return-to-office requirement, compelling most corporate employees to work on-site five days per week.
The renewed emphasis on efficiency and control follows a turbulent period after the pandemic, during which Amazon faced a pronounced deceleration in growth following an era of hyper-expansion. In response to declining margins and an oversupply of labor, the company scaled back several unprofitable or experimental initiatives and began to pare down a workforce that had become significantly oversized. Between 2019 and 2021, Amazon’s employee base surged from approximately 800,000 to 1.6 million, effectively doubling in size. Yet, by the following year, that number had already begun to contract slightly to around 1.55 million. Since late 2022, more than 27,000 positions have been eliminated across various business units, signaling an ongoing trend toward consolidation and leaner operational structures.
Further insight into Amazon’s evolving strategy came in June, when Jassy informed employees that advancements in artificial intelligence and related automation technologies were expected to enhance operational efficiency to such a degree that the size of the human workforce could eventually decline. In alignment with this view, Amazon temporarily froze new hiring within its core retail business earlier in the year, suggesting that the company’s near-term focus was to optimize existing resources rather than expand headcount. Even its highly profitable cloud division, Amazon Web Services, was not immune to cost-cutting efforts, with layoffs taking place there as recently as July.
According to a report released by Reuters on Tuesday, the upcoming wave of cuts could be even more extensive than previous rounds, potentially encompassing as many as 30,000 roles—an estimated ten percent of Amazon’s global corporate workforce. The same report highlights that human resources and the devices division, which oversees products such as Alexa-enabled technologies, are expected to experience the most significant reductions. In a related analysis, Fortune magazine also noted that Amazon may be preparing to trim up to fifteen percent of its HR personnel, signaling that even foundational administrative functions are being restructured.
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Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-layoffs-plans-thousands-warns-managers-memo-prepare-2025-10
