Amazon confirmed 16,000 further company job cuts at this time, finishing a discount of roughly 30,000 positions since October 2025, whereas going through mounting allegations that American employees have been disproportionately affected in comparison with H-1B visa holders. The corporate left open the opportunity of additional workforce reductions.

Reuters first reported final week that Amazon was planning a second spherical of job cuts as a part of a broader purpose underneath CEO Andy Jassy to scale back paperwork and abandon underperforming companies. Based on Beth Galetti, Amazon’s high human sources government, the cuts had been essential to strengthen the corporate by “lowering layers, rising possession, and eradicating paperwork.”

Social media posts from self-identified Amazon staff have sparked controversy over the demographic composition of latest layoffs. A Reddit post shared on the r/AmericanTechWorkers subreddit claimed that in two rounds of layoffs, solely American staff on a specific crew had been terminated whereas H-1B visa holders retained their positions.

“I used to be on a crew of 8 senior builders with all of us across the identical tenure,” the publish acknowledged. “They laid off 3 of us… and it simply so occurred we had been all of the Individuals.” The writer questioned why firms are allowed to put off American employees whereas retaining H-1B staff.

The unique publish was reportedly eliminated by moderators from the r/amazonemployees subreddit, although screenshots and archived variations continued circulating throughout a number of platforms. LinkedIn discussions amplified the claims, with business professionals sharing comparable anecdotal experiences from their groups.

H-1B information reveals Amazon as high petitioner

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies information for fiscal yr 2025 reveals Amazon Com Companies LLC accredited 13,265 H-1B beneficiaries, rating first amongst all employers nationwide. Meta Platforms Inc ranked second with 6,294 approvals, whereas Microsoft Company positioned third with 6,258 approvals.

The H-1B program permits U.S. employers to briefly make use of international employees in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical experience. Based on the Division of Labor, the intent of H-1B provisions is to assist employers who can not in any other case acquire wanted enterprise expertise and talents from the U.S. workforce.

Amazon employs roughly 1.58 million individuals globally, with the bulk working in success facilities and warehouses. The 30,000 company job cuts symbolize practically 10% of Amazon’s company workforce and mark the most important discount within the firm’s three many years of operation, surpassing the 27,000 positions eradicated between late 2022 and early 2023.

Scope of January 2026 layoffs

The total scope of the cuts couldn’t be realized, however staff from a number of Amazon Net Companies models, the Alexa voice assistant, Prime Video, gadgets, promoting, and final mile supply indicated on-line and in communications that they’d been affected. Further impacted roles included these in Kindle and provide chain optimization.

Amazon mistakenly despatched an electronic mail on January 27 showing to consult with the layoff plan as “Challenge Daybreak” to some Amazon Net Companies employees, unsettling hundreds of employees earlier than the official announcement. The corporate started company job cuts on January 27 by saying plans to shut its remaining Contemporary grocery shops and Go markets, ending years of makes an attempt to make these bodily retail codecs worthwhile.

Amazon additionally discontinued Amazon One, its palm-scanning biometric fee system launched with vital promotional funding. These closures represented high-profile experiments the corporate determined to desert as a part of its operational streamlining efforts.

AI automation cited as workforce issue

The job cuts underscore how synthetic intelligence is altering company workforce dynamics. Vital enhancements in AI assistants are serving to enterprises execute duties from routine administrative duties to complicated coding issues with speedy pace and precision, driving widespread adoption throughout the know-how business.

Jassy acknowledged final summer season that rising use of AI instruments would imply extra automation of duties, resulting in company job losses. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff disclosed in July 2025 that AI brokers carry out 30% to 50% of all work inside his firm, resolving 85% of customer support inquiries.

Executives on the World Financial Discussion board’s annual assembly in Davos acknowledged final week that whereas jobs would disappear, new ones would spring up. Two executives advised Reuters that AI can be used as an excuse by firms planning to chop jobs anyway.

Tech giants together with Amazon, Fb-parent Meta Platforms, and Microsoft sharply ramped up hiring throughout the COVID-19 pandemic demand surge and have currently been restructuring. Amazon has been investing in AI-powered advertising infrastructure, together with the November 2025 launch of Advertisements Agent for marketing campaign administration automation.

Workforce management dynamics emerge in discussions

Discussion board discussions revealed issues about workforce management dynamics associated to visa standing. A number of commenters famous that H-1B visa holders have restricted skill to change employers with out re-triggering costly and time-consuming software processes, doubtlessly creating what some described as “bonded labor” situations.

“Folks on H1B are tied to the corporate,” one Reddit consumer wrote. “They can not transfer round as a lot with out re-triggering the painful bureaucratic costly software course of. This ends in a docile group of oldsters who’re troopers and would simply observe orders to remain employed.”

Nonetheless, Amazon compensation constructions don’t differentiate based mostly on visa standing. Staff on the identical stage obtain equal pay inside established ranges no matter immigration standing. The corporate truly incurs further prices for H-1B staff by authorized charges, visa software bills, and ongoing renewal processes.

A number of discussion board individuals famous that of their organizations, H-1B visa holders had been disproportionately affected by layoffs, contradicting the narrative that emerged from different groups. “In my crew somebody who simply acquired promoted a month in the past, one other member who simply joined about 3 months in the past and a tenured member with stable technical expertise acquired laid off,” one worker wrote, noting the problem in figuring out clear patterns.

Business context and aggressive pressures

The layoffs happen as Amazon faces intensifying competitors in a number of enterprise segments. The corporate’s promoting income reached $17.7 billion within the third quarter of 2025, representing 22% year-over-year progress. Amazon has consolidated its advertising platforms whereas increasing capabilities throughout retail media and streaming stock.

Amazon sellers reported dramatic sales declines between Might and August 2025, with many experiencing drops between 60-80% in comparison with earlier years. The disconnect between Amazon’s reported success and particular person vendor experiences highlighted the platform’s rising give attention to large-scale operations and promoting income moderately than third-party service provider help.

Amazon has been systematically increasing its retail infrastructure past its personal market. The company introduced Manufacturing Central in August 2025, connecting sellers with producers in India throughout seven product classes. This initiative adopted Amazon’s requirement that sellers add sourcing price information for reimbursement calculations.

Immigration coverage debates intensify

The allegations have intensified broader debates about know-how business immigration insurance policies. Some discussion board individuals advocated for legal guidelines requiring organizations to put off non-residents earlier than U.S. residents throughout workforce reductions, arguing this may higher align with the acknowledged function of momentary work visa applications.

Others pushed again in opposition to characterizing the problem as immigration-related, arguing that layoff selections must be based mostly solely on efficiency and enterprise necessities moderately than visa standing. “If the premise of a layoff is ‘effectivity’, possibly the H1B staff in your org are extra environment friendly,” one commenter wrote.

Authorized specialists word that employment discrimination based mostly on nationwide origin violates federal legislation, although firms retain broad discretion in structuring layoffs throughout reliable enterprise reorganizations. Proving discriminatory intent in layoff selections sometimes requires statistical proof displaying patterns throughout giant worker populations moderately than anecdotal studies from particular person groups.

The Division of Homeland Safety and Division of Labor preserve reporting necessities and enforcement mechanisms for H-1B program compliance. Nonetheless, these focus totally on wage necessities, working situations, and correct documentation moderately than comparative therapy throughout layoffs.

Monetary efficiency amid workforce reductions

Amazon shares declined 2.1% in common buying and selling on January 28 following the layoff announcement. The corporate is scheduled to report quarterly earnings outcomes subsequent week, offering buyers with up to date monetary efficiency information and ahead steering.

Galetti left open the opportunity of additional reductions in her assertion to staff, noting that some groups will proceed to “make changes as acceptable.” She tried to deal with issues about recurring layoff cycles: “A few of you may ask if that is the start of a brand new rhythm – the place we announce broad reductions each few months. That is not our plan.”

The most recent cuts mark the second main spherical in three months after Amazon eradicated 14,000 jobs in October 2025. At the moment, the corporate cited synthetic intelligence advances and issues over shifting company tradition as contributing elements, whereas additionally acknowledging it had overhired throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when demand for on-line purchasing skyrocketed.

Amazon has been investing closely in robotics at its warehouses to hurry up packaging and deliveries for its e-commerce phase, scale back reliance on human labor, and lower prices. These automation investments parallel the corporate’s deployment of AI instruments throughout company features, doubtlessly displacing each warehouse and data employee positions over time.

Requires boycotts emerge on-line

Social media discussions developed into requires shopper boycotts as allegations unfold past technical boards. “That is improper Amazon That is improper is perhaps time to boycott Amazon for American Employees being changed with foreigners,” one consumer wrote on platform discussions.

The American Bazaar reported on January 30 that the Reddit publish had sparked recent debate over layoffs in Huge Tech and the therapy of U.S. employees amid continued reliance on H-1B visa holders. A number of customers shared private experiences of being laid off whereas colleagues on work visas retained positions.

“Occurred to my husband as effectively. Laid off in October – half his crew. All Individuals,” one commenter acknowledged. One other wrote: “I labored at a startup in Austin from 1998-2000. In some unspecified time in the future one of many genius execs determined to fireplace the US SW engineers and outsourced to an Indian agency. I do not suppose we ever bought one other system afterwards.”

Business advisor Jon Elder, founding father of Black Label Advisor, shared the allegations on LinkedIn, attracting hundreds of reactions from advertising and marketing and e-commerce professionals. The publish amassed over 200 feedback inside 48 hours, with views starting from help for visa program reform to protection of merit-based employment selections no matter citizenship standing.

The Amazon layoffs match inside broader know-how business workforce changes. UPS, Pinterest, and ASML all introduced employees reductions in latest days as firms reassess headcount following pandemic-era growth.

Nonetheless, the dimensions and strategy of Amazon’s reductions have drawn explicit scrutiny given the corporate’s place as the most important H-1B petitioner and its simultaneous investments in automation applied sciences. The corporate’s actions will seemingly affect workforce methods throughout the know-how sector as AI capabilities advance and financial pressures intensify.

Research examining AI’s impact on employment has instructed that making work dramatically cheaper by AI may doubtlessly develop whole addressable markets sufficiently to extend employment regardless of particular person duties requiring much less human effort. This Jevons paradox software to data work presents a counterintuitive chance that conflicts with prevailing unemployment issues.

The strain between automation-driven effectivity features and workforce stability will seemingly persist as firms navigate technological transformation pressures whereas managing regulatory compliance and public notion issues. Amazon’s strategy to balancing these competing priorities might set up precedents that form business practices for years to come back.

Timeline

  • Late 2022 – Early 2023: Amazon eliminates 27,000 positions in earlier largest workforce discount
  • October 2025: Amazon declares 14,000 company job cuts, citing AI and cultural issues
  • November 11, 2025: Amazon launches Ads Agent and consolidated Campaign Manager platform at unBoxed convention
  • January 9, 2025: Amazon introduces Retail Ad Service enabling retailers to implement sponsored product commercials
  • January 27, 2026: Amazon mistakenly sends “Challenge Daybreak” electronic mail to AWS employees; declares Contemporary and Go retailer closures
  • January 28, 2026: Amazon confirms 16,000 further company layoffs, bringing whole to 30,000 since October
  • January 28, 2026: Reddit posts alleging discrimination in opposition to American employees in layoff alternatives start circulating
  • January 30, 2026: Media retailers report on rising controversy and boycott calls

Abstract

Who: Amazon confirmed layoffs affecting 16,000 company staff throughout a number of divisions together with Amazon Net Companies, Alexa, Prime Video, gadgets, promoting, and logistics operations. CEO Andy Jassy directed the workforce discount, with Beth Galetti speaking the selections to affected staff. Self-identified Amazon software program engineers shared allegations on Reddit and LinkedIn suggesting American employees confronted disproportionate impacts.

What: Amazon eradicated 16,000 company positions, finishing a discount of 30,000 jobs since October 2025, whereas concurrently closing Contemporary grocery shops, Go markets, and the Amazon One biometric fee system. Social media posts alleged that Americans had been laid off at larger charges than H-1B visa holders on some groups, sparking controversy and boycott calls. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies information reveals Amazon accredited 13,265 H-1B beneficiaries in fiscal yr 2025, rating first amongst all U.S. employers.

When: The corporate introduced the 16,000 layoffs on January 28, 2026, with implementation starting January 27. The reductions adopted 14,000 cuts introduced in October 2025, representing the most important workforce restructuring in Amazon’s three-decade historical past.

The place: Layoffs affected Amazon’s company operations globally, with explicit impression on Seattle-area groups in transportation, gadgets, and core providers divisions. Discussion board discussions indicated staff in a number of U.S. places and worldwide workplaces obtained termination notices. The controversy unfold throughout Reddit, LinkedIn, and different social media platforms the place know-how professionals congregate.

Why: Amazon cited the necessity to scale back paperwork, improve possession, and take away organizational layers as justifications for the workforce reductions. The corporate acknowledged overhiring throughout the COVID-19 pandemic whereas pointing to AI automation capabilities that scale back human labor necessities for sure features. Executives framed the cuts as essential to strengthen the corporate’s aggressive place and enhance operational effectivity. Nonetheless, staff questioned whether or not visa standing influenced choice standards, elevating issues about workforce management dynamics and immigration coverage compliance.


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