Amazon confirms fresh job cuts mainly in its Stores business

Amazon confirmed on 7 October that it had cut a small number of jobs, mainly in its Stores business, which runs its core e-commerce website. Employees in the United States, India and United Kingdom were among those affected, Reuters reported, marking another reduction after earlier restructuring announcements affecting about 30,000 roles.

Fewer than 1,000 white-collar workers were let go, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Amazon did not provide a precise total in the report, so that figure remains an attributed estimate rather than a company-confirmed count.

Which Amazon teams are affected

Affected employees contacted Reuters and shared posts from internal Slack channels. Those posts suggested that customer service and selling partner services were among the Stores divisions involved, with possible effects in other parts of Amazon. The report did not establish a complete list of affected teams.

Reuters identified the US, India and UK as countries where employees were losing jobs, but gave no national breakdown. Its account did not say those were the only countries affected or specify how the reductions were distributed across different roles.

The cuts coincided with Prime Big Deal Days, Amazon’s discount promotion running on 6–7 October. Reuters reported the timing but did not establish that the promotion caused the layoffs or that shopping services were disrupted. Business Insider had reported the layoffs earlier, Reuters said.

How the cuts follow Amazon’s earlier restructuring

Reuters described the latest layoffs as part of a succession of smaller reductions following a larger round that began in 2025 and continued into January 2026. Amazon’s own workforce messages set out two earlier announcements: approximately 14,000 corporate roles, followed by approximately 16,000 additional roles.

In its earlier workforce message, Amazon said it was reducing bureaucracy, removing organizational layers and shifting resources toward its priorities. The company said some areas would reduce staffing while others would continue hiring, producing an overall corporate workforce reduction of about 14,000 roles.

That message also described artificial intelligence as enabling faster innovation and argued for a leaner organization. It did not establish that AI directly replaced the employees affected by the latest Stores cuts.

In a 28 January update, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of People Experience and Technology, announced changes affecting approximately 16,000 roles. She said some teams had completed their organizational changes in October, while others had finished that work only in January.

Together, those announcements account for approximately 30,000 roles. They describe the earlier restructuring, rather than the size of the new October cuts. Galetti also said Amazon would continue hiring and investing in strategic areas despite the reductions.

Bezos points to pandemic hiring

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos linked continuing job cuts to pandemic overhiring in a Fox News interview aired on 7 October, according to Reuters. The question quoted in Reuters’ account concerned the previous 30,000 job losses.

“People were staying home and they were ordering, and it was an incredible, stressful period for us, by the way,” Bezos said, according to Reuters. “The whole team worked extremely hard and did so much, but we really grew our head count.”

Latest employee support terms remain unclear

For January’s reductions, Amazon offered most affected US employees 90 days to seek another internal role, with international timing varying according to local requirements. It also promised departing employees transition support, including severance, outplacement services and applicable health insurance benefits. The reporting does not confirm those arrangements for the latest cuts.

Galetti said in January that broad reductions every few months were not the plan, while allowing teams to keep evaluating their organization and making adjustments. The latest reporting establishes neither a schedule for further cuts nor their potential size. A precise current total and details of support for affected employees remain unconfirmed.