Amazon confirms 16,000 job cuts following internal email misfire

Amazon is making additional organisational changes that will affect around 16,000 roles globally, according to a statement from Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology. The update comes a day after the company appeared to prematurely alert some employees about planned layoffs through an internal email.

In her statement, Galetti said the latest reductions were part of efforts first outlined in October to reduce layers, increase ownership and remove bureaucracy. While many teams completed restructuring last year, she noted that other teams only finalised changes more recently, prompting the latest round of cuts.

Most US-based employees whose roles are impacted will be given 90 days to seek internal opportunities, with timelines varying internationally based on local requirements. Those unable to secure a new role, or who choose not to pursue one, will receive transition support including severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits, where applicable.

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Despite the reductions, Galetti said Amazon would continue hiring and investing in strategic areas critical to its long-term growth, stressing that the changes were not intended to signal a recurring cycle of broad layoffs. “Every team will continue to evaluate ownership, speed and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate,” she said.

The announcement follows a report by Reuters that Amazon Web Services employees were mistakenly sent an email on Tuesday referencing layoffs planned for Wednesday.

The email, reportedly signed by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at AWS, incorrectly stated that affected employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been informed. The email was said to include a team-wide meeting invitation that was later cancelled, with the layoffs internally referred to as “Project dawn”.

It was previously reported that Amazon planned to lay off thousands of corporate employees across units including AWS, retail, Prime Video and human resources, although the full scope of the cuts remains unclear.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for more information. 

The latest changes build on Amazon’s broader cost-cutting efforts unveiled in October last year. At the time, the company was reported to be planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate roles, marking one of its largest rounds of layoffs since late 2022.

The cuts were expected to affect nearly 10% of Amazon’s roughly 350,000 corporate employees, and a small fraction of its total global workforce of around 1.55 million. The move was aimed at streamlining operations and offsetting overhiring during the pandemic, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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