Amazon is laying off nearly 30,000 corporate employees, marking the largest job reduction in its history. The cuts, spanning multiple departments, are part of a larger effort to reduce costs after pandemic-era overhiring.

In an unprecedented move, Amazon is set to lay off nearly 30,000 corporate employees — almost 10% of its entire corporate workforce — in what will become the largest job reduction in the company’s history.

The drastic cuts, set to begin Tuesday, come as Amazon grapples with overhiring during the pandemic boom and faces mounting pressure to reduce costs across its sprawling empire.

This restructuring initiative could permanently reshape the company’s landscape, impacting everything from HR to Amazon Web Services (AWS), with executives scrambling to prepare managers to deliver the news as soon as this week.

The scale of these layoffs is staggering. Roughly 30,000 corporate positions are on the chopping block, exceeding the 27,000 job losses seen in Amazon’s previous round of cuts earlier this year and in late 2022.

While the company’s total workforce is still massive — currently over a million strong — these reductions mark a significant moment in Amazon’s history, showcasing the challenges the tech giant faces as it attempts to recalibrate after a period of overexpansion.

Amazon’s layoffs will extend across a wide range of departments, including Human Resources (labeled as People Experience and Technology), Devices and Services, Operations, and AWS — the cloud computing powerhouse that has long fueled Amazon’s growth.

These cuts are seen as part of a larger effort by CEO Andy Jassy to streamline operations and reduce overhead costs that ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During that period, the e-commerce behemoth ramped up hiring to meet the surge in demand, but now the company is facing the consequences of having overextended itself.

Multiple insiders reveal that the company has been working diligently behind the scenes to correct what it sees as the fallout from those pandemic-era hiring sprees.

With the dust settling after the pandemic’s peak, Amazon is attempting to reduce expenses and become more efficient across its various operations.

The cuts come amid growing concerns about the future of big tech and the global economy’s shaky recovery, with companies across the sector — from Intel to Microsoft to Meta — also slashing jobs in response to slowing demand and rising operational costs.

The news is particularly shocking given the way Amazon has structured its workforce. The company has long prided itself on its vast human resources and technical prowess, but now, in an effort to rein in spending, even the company’s biggest divisions are feeling the pressure.

Sources confirm that Amazon has been exploring various strategies to deal with this excess, including strict return-to-office mandates that were intended to push employees to quit voluntarily.

However, these measures have fallen short of expectations, with too few resignations to offset the necessary layoffs. As a result, Amazon’s corporate staff is about to face its biggest shake-up in years.

On the ground, managers in the affected divisions are already undergoing intensive training sessions this week in preparation for what will likely be an emotionally charged series of conversations with employees.

Emails are expected to be sent out on Tuesday morning, formally notifying those who will be impacted by the mass layoffs.

The cuts will likely trigger a wave of mixed emotions across Amazon’s global network, as thousands of workers find themselves suddenly out of a job, many of them long-time employees.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has had to reduce its workforce in recent years. Earlier this year, the company made headlines for eliminating thousands of positions as part of a sweeping restructuring effort.

However, this round is notable for its sheer scale, especially given that it affects key divisions that have long been central to the company’s identity.

Another piece of the puzzle that Amazon has been grappling with is its increasing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) to automate and optimize more functions within the company.

Jassy himself has pointed to AI as one of the driving forces behind the company’s need for fewer employees in certain roles. In a statement earlier this year, he acknowledged that AI tools would likely replace a number of positions, but that new roles would emerge as a result.

The company has already begun integrating AI technologies into its operations at an accelerated pace, and experts predict that as AI continues to evolve, more human roles will be replaced, leading to further job cuts in the future.

This wave of layoffs also highlights a broader trend in the tech industry, where job reductions are becoming a common theme.

Over 200 tech companies have already slashed nearly 100,000 positions in 2025 alone, according to data from Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks job losses in the tech world.

Amazon is just the latest giant to join this list, with companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Meta also scaling back their workforces in response to a challenging business environment.

Despite these massive cuts, Amazon’s stock has been holding steady, even showing modest gains as of Monday.

The company’s stock price was up 1.23%, suggesting that investors may view these layoffs as a sign that Amazon is taking necessary steps to tighten its belt and protect its bottom line.

But while Wall Street may breathe a sigh of relief, the human cost of these layoffs will be far more personal for the tens of thousands of Amazon employees who now face an uncertain future.

For the workers left behind, the reality is sobering. Many will be left to wonder what the future holds for them in a company that seems to be slowly moving away from the model of aggressive hiring that helped build it into the global powerhouse it is today.

And with AI and automation poised to reshape the job market even further, the question remains: how many more workers will be displaced in the years to come?

For now, all eyes are on Amazon as the company navigates its largest layoff in history.

It remains to be seen how the company will recover from this mass downsizing, and whether these cuts will lead to a more efficient, streamlined Amazon or mark the beginning of a much deeper transformation in the tech giant’s business model.