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In late 2025, Amazon announced its plans to slash up to 30,000 corporate jobs worldwide—not warehouse workers or delivery drivers, but white-collar professionals such as software engineers, marketing managers, HR specialists, and middle managers. To understand the scale, this number surpasses the entire population of towns like Bangor, Maine, or Prescott, Arizona, and is comparable to the total employment at companies like Nordstrom or Chipotle.
This move marks Amazon's largest corporate workforce reduction since 2022, yet the current wave is characterized by its strategic depth. The driving force isn't economic downturn or financial strain but rather the rapid advancement and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI).