Amazon cuts 16k jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#41

Post by aoeusnth1 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:20 PM UTC

glimshe wrote: post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

Amazon has 350K corporate roles, so yearly layoffs of 16K is only 5% - if you assume some modest re-hiring in lower-cost locations, this is just a relatively standard (at least lately) pivot out of high-cost US roles into other lower-cost economies.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#42

Post by jansan » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:20 PM UTC

glimshe wrote: post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

They actually still have 1,5 million employees. The number has been approximately the same since 2021, and those 16,000 won't make a dent.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#43

Post by lightbendover » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:21 PM UTC

glimshe wrote: post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

[dead]

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#44

Post by otikik » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:21 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #19

apercu wrote: post #12

Some of these are obviously related to the closing of some of the retail businesses. And some might simply be middle management bloat that happens often at tech companies. But imagine you're one of the people who remain (e.g., not impacted by the eliminated companies or products) and now there are fewer people to do the same amount of work? I've seen that movie and it usually has an economic impact 6-9 months later w…

I've noticed at my company after a lot of layoffs and restructuring and moving people between projects, when I ask "who is responsible for X now?" there can be a lot of confusion getting the answer to that question.

“It was Bill, but he got laid off”. It doesn’t need to be confusing.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#45

Post by physicsguy » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

jansan wrote: post #42

glimshe wrote: post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

They actually still have 1,5 million employees. The number has been approximately the same since 2021, and those 16,000 won't make a dent.

Makes a dent when they fire at the high salary end and rehire at lower salaries.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#46

Post by indigodaddy » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

focusgroup0 wrote: post #37

>Amazon axes 16,000 American jobs as it ... relocates to a larger campus in India https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/10/amazon-to-invest-additiona...

Maybe the support scammers can get some real jobs as prompt engineers? Hey I'm trying to find some upside around all this.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#47

Post by lm28469 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

10 days later: Amazon to hire 16 000 new workers in its new remote Indian campus

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#48

Post by otikik » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

radicalethics wrote: post #18

I feel like this is the most natural layoff I've seen in twenty years (that is not the same as saying I feel good about it). Truly, most software companies need to cut their entire roster and re-draft quite frankly. You will need less people and have entirely new goals. This is beyond "economic" reality, AI has made it intuitive to restructure and reorient. Not doing so will just mean you will be blind-sided by any c…

What’s your favorite kool aid flavor? I hear mango is quite good

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#49

Post by Ancalagon » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

trgn wrote: post #32

b65e8bee43c2ed0 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah. pretending to innovate rather than just shed ZIRP-era deadweight. like IBM laid off a few thousand "due to AI" in 2023 , lol.

"ZIRP-era deadweight" that's 3-4 years ago now

Yeah you cannot blame ZIRP anymore, you’d look like a fool at this point

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#50

Post by nemomarx » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

sejje wrote: post #35

still-learning wrote: post #11

I wonder what kind of unprecedented economic growth we'd be seeing right now if we kept with the status quo rather than imposing tariffs and scaring off foreign investors.

[flagged]

if you look at non ai / tech stuff, isn't the economy pretty bad? they stopped reporting unemployment numbers and BLS statistics and all