Amazon Confirms 16,000 Layoffs After Email Leak Sows Confusion
The reductions are part of a broader effort to simplify operations and reduce bureaucracy, the company said.
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Amazon has confirmed it will eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs globally after an internal message appeared to notify staff of cuts before the company made a formal announcement.
The reductions, which represent one of the largest rounds of layoffs in the company’s history, are part of a broader effort to simplify operations, reduce bureaucracy and reposition the business amid rapid technological change.
On Tuesday an email referencing an internal initiative code-named Project Dawn was mistakenly sent to employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica.
The message suggested some roles had already been eliminated, prompting confusion before Amazon formally acknowledged the job cuts on Wednesday.
Amazon said the layoffs are aimed at “reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy” so the company can operate more efficiently.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice-President of People Experience and Technology, said the company was not planning repeated rounds of widespread cuts.
Referring to the 14,000 corporate job reductions announced in October, she said, “While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now.”
Amazon employs roughly 1.5 million people worldwide, including about 350,000 in corporate roles.
Most of the latest cuts are expected to be in the US, though roles in the UK and India have also been impacted, according to internal communications reviewed by Business Insider.
The confusion stemmed from a draft message written by Colleen Aubrey, a Senior Vice-President at Amazon Web Services, which was mistakenly included in a calendar invitation sent to employees.
The invitation referenced the internal code name for the restructuring. While the email made clear that job cuts were under way, many employees had not yet been officially informed.
“This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers,” the email said.
It added, “Changes like this are hard on everyone. These decisions are difficult and made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”
The layoffs span multiple business units, including cloud computing, retail, Prime services and human resources, though Amazon has not published a detailed list of teams affected.
Internal Slack messages reviewed by the media indicate units such as Amazon Web Services’ Bedrock and Redshift teams, as well as the ProServe consulting group and last-mile delivery experience teams, are among those impacted.
Affected employees were encouraged to apply for other open roles within Amazon, though opportunities were limited. Those who did not transition to new roles received severance packages based on tenure.
The cuts come as chief executive Andy Jassy continues to reshape the company following years of rapid expansion. Since taking over from founder Jeff Bezos four years ago, Jassy has overseen multiple rounds of job reductions and pushed for tighter cost controls.
