Amazon laying off about 16,000 corporate workers in latest anti-bureaucracy push

In a significant move to enhance efficiency, Amazon has revealed plans to cut approximately 16,000 corporate jobs, marking the company's second wave of layoffs since October of last year. The decision is part of an ongoing strategy aimed at strengthening the organization by simplifying its structure, boosting accountability, and reducing bureaucratic hurdles. This latest round of job cuts follows the previous termination of 14,000 employees in October, a move that Amazon had indicated would be part of a broader trend of layoffs potentially extending into 2026 as the company seeks to identify further opportunities for streamlining. Beth Galetti, Amazon's senior vice president of people experience and technology, acknowledged that while there may be more layoffs in the future, the company is not aiming to establish a regular cadence of large-scale job reductions. "That's not our plan," she stated, adding that each team will continue to assess its operational efficiency and make necessary adjustments. On a related note, some employees in Amazon's cloud division received an email regarding "organizational changes" that seemed to have been sent by mistake, confirming that impacted colleagues had been notified. As of the end of the third quarter, Amazon employed around 1.58 million individuals, predominantly in warehouse and logistics roles. The recent reductions amount to roughly 10% of its corporate and technology workforce, which is composed of about 350,000 employees. Amazon's downsizing trend has been ongoing for several years, with over 27,000 positions eliminated between 2022 and 2023, along with smaller cuts in various sectors throughout 2024. CEO Andy Jassy's strategy to streamline operations follows a period of aggressive hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was driven by a surge in demand for e-commerce and cloud computing services.