Amazon is cutting nearly 700 corporate roles in New York City as part of its broader plan to eliminate around 14,000 corporate jobs worldwide. According to a filing on New York State’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) dashboard, Amazon has laid off 660 employees across nine offices in New York City. The move comes just weeks after the tech giant announced its biggest job cuts since the pandemic, eliminating around 14,000 corporate roles.
The latest job cuts were effective November 8, 2025. The affected offices include locations on 7th Avenue, 10th Avenue, and 34th Street in Manhattan. These layoffs were disclosed in compliance with New York labor laws that require companies to provide advance notice for mass terminations.
30,000 Corporate Jobs May Be Cut Globally
The Seattle-based company is reportedly planning to slash up to 30,000 corporate roles worldwide, roughly 9% of its global office-based workforce, as part of its broader restructuring effort, Reuters reported.
In an earlier blog post on October 28, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience, said the initiative was aimed at “reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets.”
Amazon Confirms Layoffs Are Part of Efficiency Push
Speaking to USA Today, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the layoffs, describing them as part of a company-wide realignment focused on improving efficiency and aligning teams with long-term strategic goals. However, Amazon has not specified which departments were affected in the latest round.
“It’s Culture, Not AI or Costs,” Says CEO Andy Jassy
Addressing concerns about the reasons behind the layoffs, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy clarified during the company’s recent quarterly earnings call that the decision was not driven by artificial intelligence or cost-cutting measures.
“The announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven, not right now at least,” Jassy said. “It really — it’s culture.”
Explaining further, Jassy added, “And if you grow as fast as we did for several years, the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.”
“And when that happens, sometimes, without realizing it, you can weaken the ownership of the people that you have who are doing the actual work,” he continued. “And it can lead to slowing you down.”
The Bigger Picture
Amazon’s continued job reductions come amid a broader wave of restructuring across Big Tech firms that expanded rapidly during the pandemic. While many companies cite AI automation or cost pressures as primary drivers, Amazon’s leadership insists the latest layoffs are part of a cultural reset, aimed at restoring agility and ownership within its corporate structure.