Amazon is set to eliminate another 16,000 roles beginning Wednesday morning, the company announced. This next round of layoffs comes after 14,000 jobs were cut back in October, bringing the recent total to 30,000.
Impacted employees will have 90 days to find new roles within the company or accept severance. Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, shared the news in a staff memo.
However, the tech giant will still be hiring for other roles in the meantime, a move leadership described as “critical to our future.” The memo further noted: “We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead.”
The restructuring is said to be about “reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy” across departmental teams. However, Galetti also insisted this uneasy culture of massive layoffs will not become the company’s new normal.
Elsewhere in the Amazon universe, the newsroom at Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post is bracing for rumored layoffs of their own. The paper’s foreign correspondents have even publicly plead for their jobs to be kept safe after their in-person Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coverage was axed last minute.
Read the entire Wednesday memo from Amazon, below:
I want to let you know that we’re making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates. I recognize this is difficult news, which is why I’m sharing what’s happening and why.
As I shared in October, 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.
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. That starts with offering most U.S.-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (timing will vary internationally based on local and country level requirements). Then, for teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we’ll provide transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits (as applicable), and more.
While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future. We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead.
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. But just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate. That’s never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever.
I’m grateful for how our teams continue to deliver – for customers, for each other, and for the incredible things we’re building together.
