Wednesday’s cuts are the second mass layoffs at the e-commerce giant in three months.
Published on January 28, 2026
Amazon is cutting 16,000 jobs in the e-commerce giant’s second wave in three months, as the company restructures and leans on artificial intelligence.
Wednesday’s cut follows 14,000 redundancies Which the Seattle, Washington-based company did in October. The layoffs are expected to affect employees working at Prime Video, Amazon Web Services and the company’s human resources division, according to Reuters, which first reported the cuts.
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Amazon confirmed to Al Jazeera that all of the company’s cuts will affect corporate-level employees.
In a memo to employees shared with Al Jazeera, Amazon said workers in the United States affected by the cuts will have a 90-day window to find new roles with the company.
“For those who cannot find a new role at Amazon or choose not to find one, we will provide transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits (if applicable) and more,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said in a note to Al Jazeera.
The announced cuts come amid a broader restructuring effort by the company. Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it will close its brick-and-mortar Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores, which have more than 70 locations across the US.
Some of those physical stores will be converted to Whole Foods Market locations. Amazon bought the Austin, Texas-based grocery chain in 2017 and has since grown by 40 percent.
The reduction comes with increased investment in AI. In June, CEO Andy Jassey emphasized investment in generative AI and hinted at the possibility of redundancies.
“We expect this to reduce our overall corporate workforce as we gain efficiency gains through the widespread use of AI across the company,” Jassy said in a blog post at the time.
According to the AFL-CIO CEO PayWatch Tracker, Jassy earned 43 times more than the median employee at the company.
Amazon shares fell in afternoon trading, down 0.7 percent. Overall, however, the stock is up 7 percent year to date.
A wave of cuts
Amazon is the latest company to hit the wave of redundancies that hit the tech sector at the start of the year. Earlier this week, Pinterest announced it would cut 780 jobs as the social media company reallocates resources amid increased investment in AI. Last week, Autodesk said it would cut about 1,000 jobs tied to AI.
Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks redundancies in the tech sector, shows that more than 123,000 tech workers could lose their jobs in 2025 as companies like Salesforce and Duolingo double down on AI investments.
But it’s not just the tech sector that’s facing redundancy. on tuesday, UPS also announced Job cuts. The shipping giant said it would cut 30,000 jobs and close 24 facilities as it cuts deliveries with Amazon.
UPS stock was down more than 1.2 percent in afternoon trading.