During the pandemic and the immediate post-pandemic period, the company hired aggressively to meet surging demand for e-commerce, cloud services and digital entertainment. A key backdrop to the latest layoffs is the increasing use of automation and artificial intelligence across Amazon’s businesses. The company’s heavy reliance on frontline workers means that even large corporate layoffs have a limited impact on overall employment numbers, though they can have a pronounced effect on morale and talent retention within office-based teams. Large-scale corporate job cuts at a company as influential as Amazon can have ripple effects across the broader labour market, influencing hiring sentiment, wage expectations and career mobility in the tech industry. Overall, Amazon’s plan to lay off 14,000 employees by next week underscores a decisive shift from expansion to consolidation.

Source: Indian Express January 23, 2026 08:18 UTC