Amazon layoffs 2025 hit engineers the hardest, comprising 40% of those eliminated

Amazon’s sweeping layoffs, announced last month and affecting more than 14,000 employees, have hit engineering teams the hardest, despite the company’s insistence that it must innovate at greater speed. The reductions spanned almost every major division—from AWS and devices to advertising, retail and grocery—but filings across several US states indicate that engineers bore a disproportionate share of the cuts, as per a report by CNBC.

Documents submitted under Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) rules in New York, California, New Jersey and Washington show that nearly 40% of the more than 4,700 roles eliminated in those states were engineering positions. The figures represent only a portion of the total job cuts, as reporting requirements vary across states and several filings remain incomplete.

This marks the most significant round of layoffs in Amazon’s 31-year history, placing the company among a long list of technology firms that have continued slashing jobs through 2024 and 2025 despite rising profits and substantial cash reserves. According to Layoffs.fyi, almost 113,000 roles have been cut across 231 tech companies this year alone, extending trends that began when businesses recalibrated after the pandemic.

CEO Andy Jassy has been pursuing a multi-year effort to reshape Amazon into what he terms “the world’s largest startup”. He has pushed for a leaner, less bureaucratic corporate culture, encouraging teams to operate with greater efficiency, streamline structures and eliminate duplication. Amazon is expected to implement another round of job reductions in January, as previously reported by CNBC.

The company is also reallocating resources toward artificial intelligence, with Jassy stating earlier this year that AI-driven efficiencies will likely lead to a smaller corporate workforce over time. However, Amazon said in a statement that AI was not the primary reason behind the majority of job cuts; instead, the reductions were aimed at cutting organisational complexity and improving speed of execution.

The latest layoffs underline Amazon’s attempt to balance its cost-cutting priorities with investments in emerging technologies, even as some of the roles most central to innovation—engineering positions—have been significantly reduced.