Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that it had eliminated a modest number of salaried roles, predominantly within its Stores division. The reductions took place coinciding with Prime Big Deal Days, a two-day promotional event held on October 6 and 7. According to Reuters, the layoffs affected fewer than 1,000 office workers distributed across the United States, India, and the United Kingdom.
Business Insider initially broke the story, with subsequent reporting from Reuters providing additional detail on the scale of the workforce reduction. The Stores unit, which oversees Amazon's core e-commerce platform, saw multiple departments impacted by the cuts. Internal Slack communications revealed that customer service teams and selling partner services—the division supporting third-party merchants—were among those affected.
Additional reporting indicated that marketplace support and engineering roles also experienced reductions, with terminated employees coming from facilities in the US, India, and the UK. The timing in India coincided with the launch of the Amazon Great Indian Festival sale. News of the layoffs circulated among impacted staff through an internal Slack channel with approximately 37,000 members.
We've adjusted parts of our Stores business
Amazon spokesperson
An Amazon representative stated that the organizational restructuring would enable the company to concentrate on core priorities. The current reductions represent part of a broader pattern of workforce adjustments. In October 2025, Amazon eliminated roughly 14,000 salaried positions, followed by an additional 16,000 cuts in January, totaling approximately 30,000 roles, with several smaller reductions occurring subsequently.
Founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos indicated during a Wednesday Fox News interview that additional workforce reductions may be forthcoming. He attributed the need for further cuts to excessive hiring during the pandemic period, when demand for online shopping accelerated significantly.
We really grew our head count
Jeff Bezos, Fox News
The latest round of cuts arrives as Amazon invests substantially in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Chief executive Andy Jassy has announced that Amazon intends to allocate a record $220bn toward data centres, semiconductor technology, and related infrastructure, with the majority directed toward AWS and AI initiatives. Concurrently, Amazon has reached out to certain former employees, including those previously terminated, regarding positions in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud services.
The company has made no announcement regarding whether additional layoffs are anticipated. Separately, HubSpot announced this week that it would eliminate 660 positions as the organization shifts focus toward artificial intelligence capabilities.
Source: The Next Web
