What Amazon said in layoff mail to 16,000 employees on job cut

The email informs the employee that support will be provided by in the form of a non-working period, where the employees will receive full pay and benefits.

Published on: Jan 29, 2026, 15:42:53 IST

By HT News Desk

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Amazon has confirmed it will cut 16,000 jobs globally in a bid to "strengthen the company."

This marks the second round of Amazon layoffs since 14,000 jobs were cut in October 2025 (Reuters/Representational Image)

Amazon sent the mail late on Tuesday to employees, including in US, Canada and Costa Rica amid 'rising competition over AI."

Employees in the UK and India also reportedly received emails from the HR chief Beth Galetti mentioning that they will still receive full pay and benefits for 90 days, Business Insider reported.

As per the report, a message was shared with all affected employees, which said that their employment will end after the notification period.

“After a thorough review of our organisation, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we've made the hard business decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon,” the email reportedly said.

The email informed the employee that support will be provided by the company in the form of a non-working period, where the employees will receive full pay and benefits. Further, it will provide a severance package offer and transitional benefits.

Also read: Amazon announces layoffs to cut 16,000 jobs amid ‘rising competition over AI’

The email also states that Amazon will provide external job placement support to the affected employee, along with 12 months of complimentary access to AWS Skill Builder.

Further, it said that the employees will receive an invitation to schedule a conversation with an HR person to discuss queries regarding the transition.

“During your non-working transition period, you'll continue to have access to internal email, Chime, and A to Z on your personal device, and our primary mode of communication with you will be through email,” the email from Beth Galetti read.

Also read: Indian-origin AWS engineer’s LinkedIn post after being hit by Amazon layoffs: ‘Difficult news’

Citing the internal Slack messages, the report said that affected teams include those within Amazon's Web Services cloud unit. This means teams such as AI cloud service Bedrock, the cloud data warehouse service Redshift, and the ProServe consulting team will be affected.

This marks the second round of Amazon layoffs since 14,000 jobs were cut in October 2025, as Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy is determined to cut management layers and ease bureaucracy.

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HT News Desk
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