Amazon cuts 16,000 jobs in latest round of layoffs

Amazon is cutting about 16,000 jobs in the latest round of mass layoffs for the tech industry.

Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at the e-commerce company, made the announcement Wednesday in a blog post.

The latest reductions follow a round of job cuts in October, when Amazon laid off 14,000 workers.

She said US-based staff would be given 90 days to look for a new role internally. Those who are unsuccessful or don’t want a new job would be offered severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits, she said.

“While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future,” Galetti said.

The layoffs are Amazon’s biggest since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs.

Amazon’s workforce doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic as millions stayed home and boosted online spending. But in the following years, big tech and retail companies cut thousands of jobs to bring spending back in line.

Hiring has stagnated in the US, and in December, the country added a meagre 50,000 jobs, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November.

Labour data points to a reluctance by businesses to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.