Amazon Announces 16,000 Job Cuts Following Erroneous Email Release

Fri Jan 30 2026 02:46:09 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

In a surprising turn of events, Amazon has confirmed it will lay off 16,000 workers just hours after an accidental email leak disclosed the job cuts. This comes as part of a broader strategy to streamline operations amidst corporate restructuring.

Amazon has officially announced the elimination of 16,000 jobs, attributed to a necessary effort to strengthen the company's structure. The news follows an unintended email release that included details of the layoffs, leading to significant employee anxiety. Senior VP Beth Galetti noted that while major cuts have been made, the company won't be instituting ongoing broad redundancies frequently.

US technology giant Amazon has confirmed it will cut 16,000 jobs - hours after it told staff about a new round of global redundancies in an email apparently sent in error.

The email, which has been seen by the BBC, was sent late on Tuesday and refers to a swathe of employees in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica having been laid off as part of an effort to 'strengthen the company.'

The message was apparently shared by mistake, as it was quickly cancelled.

Early on Wednesday, Amazon announced job reductions as part of a plan to 'remove bureaucracy' at the firm.

Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said on Wednesday it was not planning to make 'broad reductions every few months,' referring to Amazon's announcement of 14,000 corporate job cuts in October.

'While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now,' she said.

Amazon employs around 1.5 million people globally, with around 350,000 in corporate roles. The company has not said where the latest job losses will fall or which countries will be affected.

On Tuesday, a draft email written by Colleen Aubrey, a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services (AWS), was included in a calendar invitation sent by an executive assistant to a number of Amazon workers. The title of the invitation was 'Send project Dawn email,' an apparent reference to Amazon's code name for the job redundancies.

This is a continuation of work we've been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers,' the email stated, acknowledging that such changes can be difficult.

Speculation had existed among employees that further job cuts were on the horizon, with some anticipating up to 30,000 positions to be affected across multiple announcements through mid-2026.

Amazon's recent emphasis on in-office work and stricter corporate policies represents a significant cultural shift since Andy Jassy took over as CEO, indicating a response to rapid changes facing the business landscape.