Amazon is reportedly planning to reduce its global management workforce by approximately 14,000 positions by early 2025. According to a report by Financial Express, this move is part of a restructuring initiative aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing costs. It is important to note that these layoffs are expected to affect only corporate employees in managerial positions, not the front-line staff working in Amazon’s warehouses and delivery operations.
Earlier, the Seattle-headquartered behemoth laid off around 18,000 employees in November 2024. And now, the company is reducing its number of managerial positions by 13%. As per the report, currently, there are 105,770 managers. Post these latest cuts, only 91,936 managers will remain.
The anticipated reduction in managerial roles could result in annual savings ranging from $2.1 billion to $3.6 billion, based on estimates that each managerial position costs Amazon between $200,000 and $350,000 annually.
In January 2025, Business Insider reported that Amazon’s managers were instructed to supervise at least eight direct reports, up from the previous minimum of six. This adjustment seeks to streamline operations by reducing the number of managerial positions and flattening the organizational hierarchy. Additionally, the company also imposed a temporary pause on hiring new managers to assess the impact of these structural changes.
In fact, the company’s CEO – Andy Jassy – has set a goal to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025. This strategy is intended to streamline decision-making and reduce bureaucracy within the organization.
Speaking of financials, last year (2024) Amazon’s net sales reached $638.0 billion, up 11% from $574.8 billion in 2023. The operating income grew to $68.6 billion and net income to $59.2 billion in 2024.
Meanwhile, Amazon has not yet officially confirmed any details regarding the latest layoffs. However, layoffs are not new for the second-largest private employer in the US, as it has been continuously reducing its total number of employees, especially after the pandemic. It mainly started in 2022 when Amazon initiated its largest round of layoffs in company history, affecting over 10,000 employees across multiple departments. After that, in January 2023, the company cut around 6% of its total corporate workforce. Then, in November 2023, Amazon restructured its Alexa division by trimming hundreds of jobs amid its AI push.
Interestingly, Amazon is not alone in the latest wave of layoffs in 2025. Earlier in February, Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads) reportedly planned a fresh round of layoffs affecting around 3,000 to 3,500 employees. The company informed its employees about the layoffs through an internal memo.
