US technology giant Amazon has confirmed plans to cut 16,000 jobs globally, just hours after an internal email detailing the layoffs was accidentally shared with staff.
The draft message, seen by the BBC, was sent late on Tuesday and referred to employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica being laid off as part of efforts to “strengthen the company”. The email was quickly withdrawn, suggesting it had been sent in error.
Amazon formally announced the job cuts early on Wednesday, describing them as part of a broader plan to reduce bureaucracy and streamline the organisation. Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said the company was not planning to make “broad reductions every few months”, following the 14,000 roles cut in October.
“While many teams finalised their organisational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now,” she said.
Project Dawn
The mistaken email was reportedly attached to a calendar invitation titled “Send Project Dawn email”, believed to be the internal code name for the layoffs. The draft was written by Colleen Aubrey, a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and circulated by an executive assistant to a group of employees before any official communication had been issued.
The email said the changes were a continuation of work begun more than a year ago to reduce management layers, increase accountability and help the company move faster for customers. It acknowledged the impact on staff, describing the decisions as difficult but necessary to position Amazon and AWS for long-term success.
According to a former employee, the scale of the cuts had been widely anticipated internally. Employees understood management planned to eliminate around 30,000 roles in total, with further layoffs expected through to the end of May.
Affected workers were invited to apply for other open positions within Amazon, though opportunities were limited. Those unable to secure new roles received severance packages based on length of service.
Wider tech layoffs
Amazon’s cuts come amid ongoing job losses across the technology sector. Since 2022, major firms including Meta, Google and Microsoft have laid off tens of thousands of employees. Layoffs.fyi estimates around 700,000 tech workers have lost their jobs globally over the past four years.
So far this year, Meta has cut several hundred roles, while Pinterest announced around 700 layoffs this week.
‘Time to rethink’
Since Jeff Bezos stepped down as chief executive four years ago, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has overseen multiple rounds of redundancies between 2023 and 2025. He has also introduced a stricter workplace culture, including a mandatory five-day return to the office.
The company has intensified cost-cutting efforts, reportedly monitoring AWS employees’ corporate mobile phone usage to limit a long-standing monthly reimbursement.
In a message to staff ahead of Thanksgiving, Jassy described the current period as “a time to rethink everything we’ve ever done”, citing the pace of global change.
Earlier this week, Amazon also announced it would close its remaining Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go grocery stores, shifting its focus to expanding its Whole Foods Market business.
