Amazon Layoffs 2025: Corporate Job Cuts Amid AI ‘Innovation’
By Michael Grothaus | Published: 2025-10-28 11:55:00 | Source: Fast Company – news
The world’s largest retailer has announced massive job cuts ahead of the holidays.
On Tuesday, Amazon said in a memo to employees that it would lay off 14,000 employees. Here’s what you need to know about Amazon layoffs, and why these aren’t the last jobs Amazon will likely cut in the future.
What happened ?
On Tuesday, Beth Galletti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, announced that the company would cut nearly 14,000 jobs. Galletti sent a memo about the layoffs to Amazon employees, and that was at the time published To the Amazon website.
The 14,000 job cuts are fewer than the up to 30,000 jobs cut by Reuters. I mentioned In the hours before Galetti’s memo was published. However, it still represents one of the largest single rounds of layoffs of 2025. It also comes just days after rival Target announced it would cut 1,800 jobs at the company.
Amazon did not say what the 14,000 jobs would be cut, but the memo specified that they would be “company workforce” jobs, suggesting that the workforce at Amazon’s warehouses is safe from the cuts.
But this is to be expected because Amazon is unlikely to reduce its warehouse staff before the busy holiday season.
According to PitchBook, Amazon’s total workforce is more than 1.5 million employees.
Why is Amazon laying off 14,000 employees?
The layoffs are a continuation of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s September 2024 directive to strengthen Amazon’s culture and teams, Galletti said in the memo.
In 2024, this strengthening led to a Return to Office (RTO) mandate. In 2025, it seems that strengthening your culture means cutting your workforce.
“The cuts we share today are a continuation of this work to become stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we are investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our clients’ current and future needs,” Galletti’s note states.
But Galletti went on to point out that artificial intelligence is also another important factor.
“The world is changing rapidly,” Galletti said. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we have seen since the Internet, and is enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and entirely new ones).”
For this reason, Galletti said Amazon is convinced it needs to become a leaner company with “fewer layers.”
The “classes” here are people.
While the memo makes clear that AI heralds rapid changes that will lead to leaner operations, an Amazon source said AI was not behind the vast majority of layoffs.
Amazon may cut more jobs next year
While the 14,000 job cuts Amazon announced today are devastating for the workers and their families affected, Amazon may not be done cutting jobs.
“Looking to 2026, Amazon expects to hire in key areas, while also finding additional places from which we can remove layers,” Galletti added in the memo.
How did Amazon’s stock price react?
While layoffs are devastating for workers who lose their jobs, Wall Street often sees layoffs as a good thing. This is because laying off a large number of workers is usually the quickest way for a company to cut costs and thus increase its net profits.
But if Amazon was hoping to see a rise in stock prices from this morning’s layoff announcements, the company will be disappointed.
As of this writing, Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) stock price has been relatively flat in pre-market trading. The price is up just half a percent to about $228.22 per share.
In fact, Amazon’s stock price hasn’t moved much for 2025. Year-to-date, the company’s stock price is up just 3.4%. This compares to the Nasdaq’s gain of 21% in the same period.
Amazon is expected to announce its financial results for the third quarter of 2025 on Thursday, October 30.
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(tags for translation) layoffs
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