Joy Agwunobi
Amazon is set to embark on one of its largest corporate downsizing exercises since 2022, with plans to lay off as many as 30,000 white-collar employees beginning Tuesday, as the technology giant intensifies efforts to streamline operations and manage spending following years of rapid expansion.
The move, reported exclusively by Reuters and attributed to people familiar with the matter, represents around 10 percent of Amazon’s approximately 350,000 corporate workforce. Although significant, the reduction accounts for only a fraction of the company’s 1.55 million global headcount, most of whom work in logistics, fulfillment and warehouse operations.
The job cuts are expected to affect several major units, including human resources, known internally as the People Experience and Technology (PXT) group, as well as operations, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and its devices and services division, which oversees products such as Alexa-enabled devices.
The restructuring aligns with chief executive officer Andy Jassy’s ongoing mandate to eliminate what he has criticised as “excess bureaucracy” and simplify internal processes. Over the past year, Jassy has consolidated management layers and introduced an anonymous employee feedback platform that has already delivered more than 450 operational changes from 1,500 internal suggestions.
According to Reuters, the latest downsizing push signals the growing impact of artificial intelligence on white-collar roles. Jassy has acknowledged that Amazon’s increasing integration of AI and automation is altering workflows and reducing the need for manual, repetitive work across its operations.
Sky Canaves, eMarketer analyst, said Amazon is likely “realising enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force,” adding that the cuts also align with investor expectations to offset the company’s sizable capital spend on AI infrastructure.
Managers overseeing impacted teams were reportedly briefed on Monday, with notifications to affected employees scheduled to arrive via email beginning Tuesday morning. The final number of layoffs could change depending on internal priorities, though sources suggest the PXT group could bear the heaviest hit, with cuts potentially reaching 15 percent.
Amazon has also tightened its physical-office attendance requirements as part of efforts to reinvigorate productivity and collaboration. Employees are now mandated to work from the office five days a week, in what is considered one of the strictest return-to-office policies in the tech sector. Staff who fail to comply, including those living far from assigned office locations, are reportedly being categorised as voluntarily resigned, a measure that reduces severance liabilities for the company.
Layoffs mirror a worsening global tech jobs outlook
The impending cuts extend a trend of sweeping workforce reductions across the global technology sector as companies adjust to slower growth, higher borrowing costs and rapid shifts toward automation.
More than 166,000 tech workers were laid off worldwide between January and mid-September 2025, according to newly released data from RationalFX, an international payments and foreign-exchange solutions firm. The report indicates that an average of 645 technology employees lose their jobs daily and projects that total layoffs could surpass 235,000 before year-end.
According to RationalFX, the following companies recorded the most layoffs since January 2025:
At the top of the list is Intel, which closed 2024 with roughly 109,000 employees. By the end of 2025, however, the company intends to cut its workforce down to about 75,000, meaning nearly 33,900 jobs will be lost this year alone.
Microsoft follows closely, having carried out several waves of layoffs, including its largest in April, when about 6,000 employees were dismissed, and another in July that saw 9,000 roles eliminated. Altogether, Microsoft has trimmed at least 19,215 positions in 2025 as part of its organisational restructuring aimed at flattening management layers across its operations.
India’s Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has not been spared in the ongoing cuts. The IT services giant has reportedly laid off around 12,000 workers in 2025, reflecting a broader push among Indian firms to reduce costs and accelerate automation and artificial intelligence adoption.
Similarly, Panasonic announced in May 2025 that it would be trimming 10,000 roles, splitting the cuts equally between Japan and its overseas operations, as part of a major restructuring and consolidation plan.
IBM, another major player, has also leaned heavily on automation to reshape its workforce. By introducing AI tools to handle functions once managed by human resources staff, including employee inquiries and spreadsheet analysis, the company has so far dismissed roughly 9,000 workers this year.
In Europe, semiconductor manufacturer STMicro revealed plans to reduce its workforce by 5,000 over the next three years, though the move has drawn resistance from governments in countries such as Italy.
Other major tech corporations such as Salesforce, Meta, Oracle and Amazon itself have executed substantial workforce adjustments this year, further highlighting the scale of change underway in the sector.
RationalFX described the layoffs as part of a deeper transformation rather than a downturn in financial performance. “Economic uncertainty, high interest rates, and the accelerating shift towards automation and artificial intelligence continue to drive mass layoffs across the tech sector. It is not just individuals being made redundant; entire roles that were once deemed essential are disappearing from the workforce,”the firm noted.
