Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has continued reducing its corporate workforce in October 2026, extending a restructuring programme that has already eliminated approximately 30,000 positions since late 2025.
The latest layoffs, confirmed on October 7, affected fewer than 1,000 employees, primarily within Amazon’s Stores division, which operates its main e-commerce business.
- Amazon confirmed another round of layoffs on October 7, 2026, affecting fewer than 1,000 employees, primarily in its Stores division across the US, UK and India.
- The latest reductions follow 14,000 corporate job cuts in October 2025 and 16,000 in January 2026, the largest restructuring in Amazon’s history.
- Amazon plans to invest approximately $220 bn in capital expenditure in 2026, while AWS revenue increased 37% to $42.2 bn in Q2 and operating profit reached $16.6 bn.
Affected teams included customer service, selling partner support and retail engineering. Employees in the United States, India and the United Kingdom were among those receiving termination notices.
We’ve adjusted parts of our Stores business because we believe this structure will better enable us to deliver on our priorities.
Amazon did not disclose an exact number of affected workers or provide a complete breakdown by department and location.
The reductions coincided with Prime Big Deal Days, one of Amazon’s principal seasonal sales events.
Amazon’s restructuring extends beyond January
The company’s largest workforce reduction began on October 28, 2025, when Amazon announced approximately 14,000 corporate job cuts.
A second round followed on January 28, 2026, eliminating another 16,000 positions and bringing the combined total to approximately 30,000.
That represented nearly 10% of Amazon’s estimated corporate workforce of around 350,000 employees before the restructuring.
The January announcement followed an internal communication error involving a calendar invitation referencing “Project Dawn,” an apparent internal name for the redundancy programme.
The invitation contained a draft email from Amazon Web Services executive Colleen Aubrey that referred to layoffs before affected employees had been formally notified.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, subsequently confirmed the cuts, explaining that some divisions had not completed the restructuring announced the previous October.
Amazon offered most affected US employees 90 days to find alternative positions internally. Those unable or unwilling to transfer were eligible for severance, outplacement assistance and continued health insurance benefits, subject to applicable arrangements.
Galetti said the company did not intend to announce large workforce reductions every few months, although teams would continue reviewing their structures and staffing requirements.
The subsequent smaller rounds, including reductions in robotics and artificial intelligence operations, indicate that restructuring has continued beyond the initial 30,000 positions.
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy has linked the changes to a broader effort to reduce management layers, accelerate decision-making and increase the use of artificial intelligence.
Amazon also maintains a five-day office attendance requirement for corporate employees, introduced in January 2025.
Amazon increases AI investment while reducing corporate roles
The workforce reductions come as Amazon increases investment in cloud computing, data centres, custom AI chips and automation.
In July, the company raised its 2026 capital expenditure plan to approximately $220 bn, an increase of $20 bn from its previous projection.
Amazon reported second-quarter revenue of $200.6 bn, up 20% year over year, while operating income increased 43% to $27.5 bn.
AWS delivered particularly strong results, with revenue rising 37% to $42.2 bn and operating income increasing to $16.6 bn from $10.2 bn a year earlier.
Group net income reached $62.6 bn, although the figure included $53.4 bn in non-operating pre-tax income, primarily related to Amazon’s investment in Anthropic.
Despite stronger operating earnings, free cash flow for the trailing 12 months turned negative at $7.6 bn, compared with positive free cash flow of $18.2 bn a year earlier. The decline reflected substantially higher infrastructure investment, primarily associated with AI.
Amazon reported approximately 1.595 mn employees worldwide at June 30, 2026, up 3% year over year. This broader figure includes warehouse and logistics employees and shows that corporate layoffs have not resulted in an overall decline in the company’s reported workforce.
The restructuring has also extended to physical retail. In January, Amazon announced plans to close its remaining Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores, shifting its grocery strategy toward Whole Foods Market and delivery services. The company also discontinued its Amazon One palm-recognition payment service.
AWS management defends AI spending ahead of Q3 results
In an October 16 interview, AWS Chief Financial Officer John Felton defended Amazon’s AI investment strategy amid growing market concerns about the returns available from large-scale data centre construction.
AWS had a contracted order backlog approaching $500 bn at the end of the second quarter and was seeing investment payback periods of less than three years on AI servers.
AWS’s AI business has also exceeded a $25 bn annualised revenue run rate, growing at a triple-digit percentage rate year over year.
For investors, the combination of workforce reductions and record capital expenditure raises questions about how much of Amazon’s future productivity improvement will translate into lower staffing requirements and higher margins.
Amazon is scheduled to report third-quarter 2026 financial results on October 29. The announcement will provide updated evidence of whether AWS growth and operating efficiencies are sufficient to support the company’s increased investment spending.
As of October 18, Amazon’s latest confirmed layoffs remain the smaller October reductions, following the 30,000 corporate positions eliminated in the two major rounds announced in October 2025 and January 2026.
