Amazon has confirmed a fresh round of job cuts affecting fewer than 1,000 white-collar employees globally, with the reductions concentrated largely in its Stores business, which manages the company’s core e-commerce operations.
The latest restructuring has affected employees in the United States, India and the United Kingdom. In the US, the cuts coincide with Prime Big Deal Days, Amazon’s major shopping event held from October 6 to October 7. In India, the workforce changes have come during the Great Indian Festival shopping period.
Which Amazon roles are affected?
Several divisions within the Stores organisation have been impacted, including customer service and selling partner services. Marketplace support and engineering positions connected with Amazon’s retail operations are also among the affected roles.
Amazon described the reduction as involving a “small number” of positions. The company said it had reorganised parts of its Stores business after determining that a new structure would help it pursue its priorities more effectively. It also said it would support employees whose positions had been eliminated during the transition.
Will employees in India be affected?
Yes. Amazon employees in India are among those affected by the latest layoffs. However, the company has not disclosed the number of Indian employees impacted, so a country-wide figure for India cannot currently be independently confirmed.
Why is Amazon reducing its workforce?
Amazon has said the decision is part of a reorganisation aimed at making the Stores business more efficient and better aligned with its priorities. The company has referred to the elimination of a limited number of roles as a difficult but necessary step in adjusting parts of the business.
The move also forms part of Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy’s wider effort to create a leaner organisation, reduce bureaucracy and redirect resources towards strategic areas. Amazon’s broader restructuring has taken place alongside a growing focus on artificial intelligence.
In October 2025, Amazon announced an approximately 14,000-role reduction in its corporate workforce. At the time, the company said it wanted to reduce organisational layers, increase ownership and move resources towards major priorities.
Amazon announced another 16,000 corporate job reductions in January 2026. The company also said it expected to continue hiring for key strategic areas.
How does AI fit into the restructuring?
Artificial intelligence is a significant part of Amazon’s wider investment and workforce strategy. The company has been expanding spending on AI while reorganising or reducing staff in some parts of its operations.
In its October 2025 layoff announcement, Amazon said the latest generation of AI was changing the technology sector and that the company needed fewer organisational layers and greater individual ownership.
Amazon is preparing to spend about $220 billion on data centres, chips and other infrastructure to support AI and related operations. However, the company has not said that AI is the sole reason for the latest job cuts or that the affected positions are being directly replaced by artificial intelligence.
What Jeff Bezos said
Amazon Founder and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos said in a television interview aired on Wednesday that the company had sharply increased its workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic, when people stayed home and ordered more products online.
The latest layoffs are part of Amazon’s continuing effort to reshape its workforce after the pandemic-era expansion, while increasing investment in areas including artificial intelligence.
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