Amazon cuts 16k jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#121

Post by nicoburns » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

rich_sasha wrote: post #68

paxys wrote: post #4

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

Excuse is only half the story. I don't fully understand why they are doing it though. Companies hire people to make money, not as an act of social conformance. Global economy doesn't look that terrible. Nor is the AI story that believable. Is it just the CEO Zeitgeist? All the guys at Aspen talking about what fraction they cut, just as 5 years ago they bragged how bloated their org chart is? TBH the "ZIRP overhiring"…

> Global economy doesn't look that terrible.

It doesn't? I was born in the 90s (so admittedly 2008 was before I started working), but the economy is looking the worst it's been in my lifetime to me.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#122

Post by paganel » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

tchalla wrote: post #97

Interesting perspective of an L7 who was laid off at Amazon https://xcancel.com/PlumbNick/status/2016500347053773198

It certainly looks like AI slop, so I stopped reading pretty fast.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#123

Post by weaksauce » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

rat9988 wrote: post #76

yodsanklai wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how this is also related to the attacks on the H1B visa.

I'm not american, but it seems to me there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B. I'm not sure anyway what is the relationship between the potential difficulty of hiring new folks, and firing current folks in USA to offshore roles, are relates.

you see the reason h1b is so popular with the c-suite in a lot of cases is that you get absolute loyalty to a company that holds all the power of your being allowed to stay in the us. you lose the h1b job and you have limited time to find a new valid employer to sponsor you or else you go back to your country. it's one of the reasons musk loves it for twitter.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#124

Post by Rijanhastwoears » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

rat9988 wrote: post #76

yodsanklai wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how this is also related to the attacks on the H1B visa.

I'm not american, but it seems to me there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B. I'm not sure anyway what is the relationship between the potential difficulty of hiring new folks, and firing current folks in USA to offshore roles, are relates.

> it seems to me there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B.

Anecdotal so hold on to your salt but in my social circle here in the US natural-born US citizens vs visa-holders self-select for types of jobs. For example, if my the starting pay is Not saying my US friends are uppity as much as visa holders are desperate.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#125

Post by zdragnar » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #94

rat9988 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not american, but it seems to me there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B. I'm not sure anyway what is the relationship between the potential difficulty of hiring new folks, and firing current folks in USA to offshore roles, are relates.

> there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B. As an interviewer in a big tech company, it seems all candidates I interview are foreigners who often graduated in the US. Either the company discriminates (which I really doubt it does), or there aren't enough qualified Americans for some jobs. And even if there are, the largest pool of candidates, the better.

Big tech companies are biased to sourcing from big name universities that have a lot of foreign students, and big tech companies were much more likely to go through the effort of H1B than smaller companies. As such your candidate pool is more heavily skewed than elsewhere.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#126

Post by y-curious » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

ferguess_k wrote: post #117

oytis wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was pretty obvious what is going to follow axing of H1B

It's even less expensive! Problem solved. Mr. President, we have successfully axed all H1B positions, as you have wished.

I guess we just need the other shoe to drop: punish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#127

Post by micromacrofoot » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #4

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

They're increasingly intertwined these days, so it's not much of a lie

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#128

Post by volkk » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

Sevii wrote: post #114

volkk wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is it me or is this ai slop

100%

it's insane. people just don't want to use their brains to communicate anymore i guess. you've just experienced something traumatic like a layoff, and you can't even just take a few hours to internalize it and be vulnerable online, rather than jumping immediately onto social media to use the opportunity to sound like a market analyst

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#129

Post by Apocryphon » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

scottLobster wrote: post #103

locknitpicker wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You underestimate how sclerotic large corporations can be. I've seen people do zero work (...) This is the very first time I saw anyone with a straight face talking about Amazon workers and mentioning "people do zero work, quite visible".

To be fair I've never worked at Amazon, but at this point they have 1.6 million employees worldwide. I don't care what their hiring brochures say, if you think they don't suffer the same ailments as every corporation that size I have a bridge to sell you. Certain sectors are high performing centers of excellence whose staff write blog posts that get posted to HN, publish papers, get put on the covers of hiring media…

The comment was likely less about positive corporate spin, more about rumors of Amazon's allegedly grueling, PIP-centered culture.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#130

Post by square_usual » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

weaksauce wrote: post #123

rat9988 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not american, but it seems to me there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B. I'm not sure anyway what is the relationship between the potential difficulty of hiring new folks, and firing current folks in USA to offshore roles, are relates.

you see the reason h1b is so popular with the c-suite in a lot of cases is that you get absolute loyalty to a company that holds all the power of your being allowed to stay in the us. you lose the h1b job and you have limited time to find a new valid employer to sponsor you or else you go back to your country. it's one of the reasons musk loves it for twitter.

H1B transfers are easy. You aren't beholden to an employer.