There is a discussion about Amazon doing its biggest layoff ever across every division.
Many US product teams are also being transferred to Canada
Videos
Amazon just laid off around 14,000 employees globally, including 2,303 in Seattle. The reason was simple on paper but complex in execution - each org was given a target to reduce operating expenses, which, in practice, meant headcount reductions across all levels (L4-L8).
These weren’t grassroots decisions. The calls were made by VPs/SVPs (L10/L11). Despite the org charts, most directors were kept out of it - a few were quietly “hinted,” but very few actually had a say. The direction came top-down and moved fast.
If you read the patterns, it’s clear there was a method to the madness: 1. Remote employees were targeted first. Fully remote roles had a flag. In a few orgs with humane leaders, some people were quietly given the option to relocate or align with a team location - those who accepted were selectively spared. Those who declined, even with solid performance, were dropped. Not everyone got this choice; it often depended on having a strong internal network or supportive L8/L10 leadership. 2. Extended leave cases came next - employees on or returning from maternity, paternity, or FMLA leave in 2025. Across orgs (especially TT/HV3), being out of sight unfortunately became a factor. 3. Once quotas still weren’t met, low performance bands (HV1s, and if needed HV2s) were tapped to close the gap.
The categories above are org, specific. I have observed this in 3 orgs. When I say org, I refer to anyone under an L8 leader. If you fall into any/all of the three above, and are still employed, you have someone higher above vouching for you or have L10 visibility high impact projects or belong to an org, which may have applied a different strategy or are simply very lucky. If your org has enough people on focus/HR escalations, it can be as simple as not employing the above flags and simply letting go of those folks.
It’s a hunting game of gazelles. The fastest ones still fell if they were remote or on leave; the slower ones got caught if the quotas weren’t filled.
A few strongly networked L6s/L7s with L8 or L10 backing managed to stay clear, but most didn’t have that safety net.
This first wave - 14K out of a rumored 30K - is likely just the beginning. Retail orgs may see action after Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and AWS after re:Invent. Expect a second major wave in January, with smaller aftershocks through November and February.
Behind the numbers are real people - friends, colleagues, and mentors. Some of the best Amazonians I know are suddenly updating résumés this week. It’s heartbreaking to watch brilliant, kind, and hardworking folks caught in something this mechanical.
So if you’re in a position to help, reach out to those impacted. Offer a referral, a conversation, or just empathy. Many could use a bit of humanity right now - both before and after whatever comes next.
Edit 1: Added caveats below the three criteria based on inputs. Added the focus/HR escalations as an override.
Please Don't DM me.
Update 11/12: AWS ASP (20% cut):
https://www.teamblind.com/us/s/c1px4yvs
Sharing the content from the above link for reference:
Did you see this from u/QuickSuite? "I'm back with another credible layoff update (Amazon)" https://www.teamblind.com/us/s/v1fw07uz
Following their lead. I’m in PXT, close enough to AWS Specialist and Partners (ASP) to see what’s coming down the pipe. Here’s what I know.
ASP had a RIF in July, but the planning for the Jan RIF started right after.
What’s confirmed:
Date: January 27, 2026 Size: 20-25% of the org Process: PXT provides the data, but L8s make the cuts Impacted roles: All — PDM, PSM, PSA are showing up Reorg: At least one large group (200+) is getting broken up and redistributed. Not specifying which. Timeline: Lists are being built now through mid January.
If you’ve got info to share or questions, DM.
Original:
Courtesy Blind (pasted the content as is): https://www.teamblind.com/us/s/v1fw07uz
I made my last post here out of frustration, but it ended up gaining a lot of attention and a lot of people reached out in DMs to thank me and to discuss additional stuff. While I'm in PXT, my role doesn't have direct visibility into the targets and layoffs, but my teammates and stakeholders that I support do. So, my investigative mode went overdrive last few days and here's all the 100 percent verified information I know.
Layoff date: 27th Jan. Confirmed.
Targets: anywhere between 4 to 20 percent depending on orgs. Even impacted orgs will have updated targets. These targets are Opex and not headcount, so if you have a higher salary, you have a higher chance of getting impacted.
Criteria: Directors can get very creative. While initial list can come from PXT, directors seem to have full control. They cannot target anyone willy nilly, but can go specific terms of saying, 'this service will be deprecated and there are 2 SDEs working on this who we can lay off.'
Program Manager, SDE, BIE will be the primarily impacted roles. (note, this information is very much specific to one org as the people that support other orgs did not disclose type of roles impacted).
Overall org level consolidations will happen. Guaranteed example : one entire org of 150 plus people is going to be split and reorged under multiple other orgs. I cannot provide details of which org here as I'll doxx myself and my teammate, but you can DM me with your org and I'll say yes/no. I cannot go more specific than that. But what I was told was that multiple of these instances are occuring..
The lists have to finalized by Nov17 for most orgs. For others Nov 20 is the deadline. Post Oct 28, if you see all L8s in your org gathering for a meeting or an offsite that includes an HRBP session, then that's where the list will be decided. So check the calendars for Oct 28 to Nov 20.
There is nothing anyone can do to get in or out of the list, but those in WA can apply for FMLA now to be excluded.
That's all for now. I'll update this post with any additional details I can gather.
Also, please don't DM about AWS orgs as my knowledge is limited to stores. But I definitely think that AWS would have much higher targets overall
Hearing a ton of rumors over on blind that a big layoff will occur in October. But we’ve heard similar rumors before that ended up being fake.
This one feels bit different just due to the amount of rumors.
I'm hearing some rumblings of possible layoffs in the store's org! I hope it's just a shitty rumor
Does anyone know what orgs are being affected?
Key point summary:
Amazon’s mass layoffs announced last month hit engineers the hardest, according to state filings.
Nearly 40% of the roughly 4,700 positions eliminated across Washington, New York, New Jersey and California were engineering jobs.
Video games, advertising and AI search were also significantly impacted
With AI initiatives at Amazon struggling to gain real traction, I can’t shake the feeling that Rohit Prasad and the Devices org (Alexa, Echo, etc.) might be on the chopping block for a massive layoff soon. The company has been doubling down on generative AI, but so far, it hasn’t delivered the kind of breakthrough that justifies the massive investments in these teams.
I’ve also been hearing similar chatter from the AWS side. Cloud growth is slowing compared to previous years, and with all the big tech players aggressively optimizing costs, AWS might not be immune this time.
Amazon has gone through multiple waves of cuts in the past two years, mostly targeting underperforming or low-margin areas. Devices has historically been a low-profit segment (Alexa never really became the cash cow they hoped), and now with AI hype at its peak but no clear winning product, I wouldn’t be surprised if leadership starts trimming these units.
What do you all think? Are we about to see another round of major layoffs, especially hitting Devices and AWS? Or do you think Amazon will double down and try to pivot instead?
Is it possible that Amazon put employees in Focus/Pivot then announce layoff? I heard they did it in 2023/2024 layoffs, but I am trying to see if I should wait till end of Focus to ask for FMLA, or FMLA the sooner the better before they announce the layoff by end of Q1 2025 that will be earlier than my stock vest period in May? I am emotionally exhausted at this point to plan for the best course of actions for myself.
I was impacted too L6, Amazon Ads / DSP.
Here’s a structured summary based on the Megathread as of 10/28/2025 11:45 pm PST
📊 Amazon Layoffs Summary (Oct 2025 Thread Data)
Amazon Layoffs – Mentions by Department/Org| Department / Org | Approx. Mentions | Typical Levels Impacted | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stores / Core Retail / NA Stores | 42 | L4 – L6 | Heavy impact across SDEs, SDMs, analysts; some finance sub-teams (Stores Finance) reported 20 % cuts. |
| Ads / AdTech / Marketing | 31 | L4 – L7 | One of the largest groups discussed; includes Ad Sales Mgrs and SDEs. |
| Devices & Services (incl. Alexa, Books, Music) | 28 | L4 – L6 | Many Sunnyvale & Seattle roles; several SDE2 and PMT mentions. |
| Finance / FGBS / Accounting | 25 | L4 – L6 | FGBS Seattle hit hard; includes BA II, L5 SDE2, L6 Finance Mgrs. |
| PXT / HR / Recruiting | 23 | L3 – L5 | Recruiters and HRAP staff widely affected; several < 1-yr tenures. |
| Robotics / Automation | 11 | L5 | TPM II and SDE roles in Amazon Robotics. |
| Prime Video / MGM Studios | 10 | L5 – L6 | Biz Dev and Program Mgr cuts; reports from Seattle & Culver City. |
| Global Logistics / Transportation / Ops | 8 | L4 – L5 | Fewer but notable mentions; some L4 Recruiters & SDEs. |
| Payments / Fintech | 7 | L4 – L5 | Seattle & Sunnyvale teams hit; multiple SDE reports. |
| Legal / Compliance | 6 | L5 | 9.5 yr veteran (non-lawyer) noted no transition planning. |
| IT / Infrastructure / Enterprise Eng | 6 | L4 – L5 | Long-tenured IT engineers (6–8 yrs) in NY and non-Seattle sites. |
| Amazon Business (B2B) | 5 | L4 | Business Analyst and marketplace roles (Seattle / Austin). |
| Grocery / Physical Stores / WFM | 5 | L5 | Merged-team redundancies & WFM integration cited. |
| Games / Entertainment / Twitch / IMDb | 5 | L5 – L6 | Layoffs across Amazon Games, IMDb, Twitch support. |
| AWS (Core / Finance / Support) | 4 | L4 – L6 | Fewer direct hits yet; multiple commenters expect Q1 follow-ups. |
| Music / Business Development | 3 | L6 | 14-yr tenured L6 Music BD staffer impacted. |
| Subsidiaries (Zappos, Ring, etc.) | 3 | Mixed | Zappos confirmed ~55 cuts; IMDb impacted. |
| Customer Service / Call Centers | 3 | L3 – L4 | Limited mentions so far. |
| Prime Air / Kuiper / Labs | 2 | — | Few unconfirmed reports. |
| Total Distinct Mentions | 228 | — | Represents unique Reddit handles self-reporting org + level. |
🔍 Breakdown by Level Mentions
| Level | Approx. Count | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| L3 | 7 | 3 % |
| L4 | 42 | 18 % |
| L5 | 102 | 45 % |
| L6 | 59 | 26 % |
| L7 | 9 | 4 % |
| Total | 219 | 100 % |
📈 Text-based Chart (Level Distribution)
L3 | ░░ L4 | ████░░░░░░░░░ L5 | ██████████████████████████████████████ L6 | ███████████████████ L7 | ███
🧠 Insights
Engineering-heavy impact: ~60 % of mentions are SDE/Tech roles.
Geography: Seattle > Sunnyvale > NYC > India > Austin.
Tenure range: Many 4–10 yr employees; some < 1 yr new hires.
Timing clues: AWS round expected post-Re:Invent (Jan 2026).
Tech layoffs: Amazon Web Services (AWS) division gave hundreds of employees the pink slip from its cloud unit earlier this week. The major wave of job cuts comes just weeks after CEO Andy Jassy stated that AI will likely reduce the need for certain roles across Amazon. Analyst Amanda Goodall, who uses the handle “@thejobchick” on X(formerly Twitter) predicted that further job cuts are expected towards the end of this year.
from what I’m seeing on blind, it seems like there’s gonna be an aggressive round in q1.
the big profitable company I work for is raising their annual layoff quota by 2x what it normally is.
Amazon is also doing their big round too, they typically are a leader in layoff practice so other companies will do the same.
be prepared everyone. I think 2026 is going to be one of the worst years yet for layoffs.