Amazon Confirms 16,000 Job Cuts After Email Error

Created by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1931 EAT on Wednesday 28 January 2026

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

The email, seen by the BBC and sent late on Tuesday, indicated that employees in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica would be affected as part of an effort to “strengthen the company.” The message was quickly cancelled, suggesting it had been shared by mistake.

Early on Wednesday, Amazon formally announced the job cuts, describing them as part of a plan to “remove bureaucracy” and streamline operations across the firm.

Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said on Wednesday that the company was not planning to make “broad reductions every few months,” referring to the 14,000 corporate job cuts announced in October.

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

Amazon employs around 1.5 million people globally, including roughly 350,000 in corporate roles. The company has not disclosed which teams, locations, or countries will be affected by the latest job cuts.

The job reductions, reportedly code-named “Project Dawn,” were first revealed in a draft email written by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president at Amazon Web Services (AWS). The email was accidentally attached to a calendar invitation sent by an executive assistant to a number of Amazon employees on Tuesday.

While the email indicated that the cuts were imminent, staff had not yet been officially informed. The message stated:

“This is a continuation of the 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. Changes like this are hard on everyone. These decisions are difficult and made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”

The layoffs had been anticipated by Amazon employees for weeks, according to a former worker who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There had been a general expectation among staff that the company planned to cut around 30,000 roles in total, the former employee added. They themselves left Amazon as part of the redundancy round in October.

The company was expected to reach that total with another significant round of job cuts this month, followed by further reductions extending through the end of May.

Affected employees were invited to reapply for available positions at Amazon, though the number of openings was limited. Those who did not secure another role were offered severance pay based on their tenure with the company.

Since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stepped down as chief executive four years ago, his successor Andy Jassy has overseen multiple rounds of job cuts and sought to instill a stricter workplace culture.

In a notable shift, in-office work is now mandatory five days a week, making Amazon one of the few major tech companies requiring employees to be in the office full-time. The company has also focused on cost-cutting measures, including monitoring corporate mobile phone use by AWS employees to limit a longstanding $50-per-month reimbursement, according to Business Insider.

In an email to employees ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, viewed by the BBC, Jassy expressed gratitude for the “challenges and opportunities at work” amid a rapidly changing global landscape. He described the current period at Amazon as “a time to rethink everything we’ve ever done.”

On Tuesday, the company announced plans to close its roughly 70 remaining Amazon-branded grocery stores, including Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go outlets, while expanding its Whole Foods Market operations.

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