Is Amazon preparing for its biggest corporate downsizing yet?

SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon is reportedly planning to lay off as many as 30,000 corporate employees this week in what could become its largest round of job cuts since 2022, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The reductions, expected to begin Tuesday, would impact roughly 10 percent of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate workforce, though less than 2 percent of its global headcount of 1.55 million. Divisions likely to be affected include human resources (People Experience and Technology), devices, services, operations, and possibly Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Sources said the layoffs follow CEO Andy Jassy’s efforts to streamline management layers, cut costs, and increase automation through artificial intelligence tools. Jassy has described his campaign as an attempt to eliminate “bureaucracy,” encouraging employees to identify inefficiencies that can be replaced by AI-driven processes.

Industry analysts believe the company’s growing reliance on AI to handle repetitive corporate tasks has made such cuts possible. “Amazon is likely realising enough productivity gains from AI to justify a major workforce reduction,” said Sky Canaves, an analyst at eMarketer.

Amazon has not publicly confirmed the job cuts, but managers were reportedly briefed on Monday on how to communicate with affected staff.

The move also coincides with Amazon’s strict return-to-office policy, which requires employees to work from the office five days a week — one of the toughest in the tech sector. Internal sources say the rule has not generated the level of voluntary departures the company anticipated, prompting deeper layoffs.

Despite ongoing restructuring, Amazon’s cloud arm AWS continues to grow, though at a slower pace than rivals Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

If confirmed, the layoffs would add to the nearly 100,000 tech jobs lost worldwide in 2025, as companies recalibrate after heavy pandemic-era hiring.