Amazon is planning to cut thousands more corporate jobs next week, according to sources familiar with the matter, extending a cost-cutting campaign that has already eliminated over 27,000 positions since early 2023.
The cuts will hit hardest in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing division that generates the majority of Amazon's operating profit, and in the company's advertising and retail operations. Exact numbers remain closely guarded, but sources indicate the reductions will be "significant"—corporate speak for brutal.
This isn't Amazon's first rodeo. The company eliminated 18,000 jobs in January 2023, then cut another 9,000 in March. Add next week's cuts, and Amazon will have reduced its corporate workforce by roughly 10% in just over three years. For a company that spent the pandemic hiring with abandon, it's a stunning reversal.
CEO Andy Jassy has made "operational efficiency" his mantra, code for doing more with fewer people. The strategy is working—at least for shareholders. Amazon's operating margin hit 6.1% in Q4 2025, up from 2.4% two years earlier. Wall Street loves it. Employees, less so.
But Amazon isn't alone. The tech sector has shed over 400,000 jobs since 2022, according to layoffs.fyi. Meta cut 21,000. Google eliminated 12,000. Microsoft, Salesforce, Twitter (now X)—the list reads like a who's who of companies that claimed "talent is our most valuable asset" right up until the moment they decided it wasn't.
The pattern is clear: Tech companies over-hired during the pandemic boom, mistaking a temporary surge in demand for permanent growth. When interest rates rose and ad spending fell, the reckoning arrived. Now they're correcting—violently.
What's different about Amazon's approach is the pace. While Meta and Google executed large, one-time cuts, Amazon has opted for a death by a thousand cuts strategy: rolling layoffs that keep employees in a constant state of anxiety. It's arguably worse for morale, but it gives management flexibility to adjust headcount division by division.
The AWS cuts are particularly notable. Cloud computing is supposed to be Amazon's growth engine, the business that funds everything else. If even AWS is trimming staff, it signals either a maturing market or aggressive margin optimization—probably both.
For tech workers, the message is unambiguous: The golden age is over. Stock options aren't lottery tickets anymore. Job security is a relic. The companies that paid $300,000 for entry-level engineers now pay $180,000 and have 500 qualified applicants for every role.
Amazon declined to comment on the upcoming cuts, maintaining its standard policy of not discussing "rumors and speculation." But the rumors have been remarkably accurate lately.
Notifications go out next week. Update your LinkedIn accordingly.
