Amazon cuts 16k jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#161

Post by darth_avocado » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:56 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...

Amazon is a big retailer in India, believe it or not, if you are a big online retailer in a country, you will have a big corporate presence in that country.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#162

Post by WoodenChair » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

"Earlier this month, top executives at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting said while jobs would disappear, new ones would spring up, with two of them telling Reuters that AI would be used as an excuse by companies planning to cut jobs anyway."

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#163

Post by eli_gottlieb » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #147

nicoburns wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yeah, that's one perspective :-) Objectively, the global labor market is the hottest it has been in modern history.

Which is why governments and firms in the capitalist core are trying to cool it down?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#164

Post by x0x0 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

Rijanhastwoears wrote: post #124

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.

> 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.

> as visa holders are desperate

That is the point of most of these programs. If we (as a country) do h1b, those people should be on an automatic path to a green card.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#165

Post by miltonlost » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

computerphage wrote: post #81

rich_sasha wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"…

Why isn't the AI story believable? It seems to me that AI is getting more and more productive

Ai is definitely able to sling out more and more lines of code, yes. Whether those LOC are productive...?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#166

Post by crims0n » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

notTooFarGone wrote: post #82

sejje wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Dollar is losing value by the day, gold and silver on record high and somehow this is not an indicator for huge uncertainty? China is beating the US on pretty much every stage and this only accelerates this.

Isn't China currently stuck in a deflation loop?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#167

Post by arjie » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

The difference between the reaction on HN to the Amazon layoffs and the ASML layoffs is interesting. Perhaps it's driven by the fact that people here are employed by US companies and not by ASML, so we're able to admire how ASML is cutting 4% of its workforce as reducing the number of managers but Amazon cutting 1%^H^H 4% of its corporate workforce so that they can get to "reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy" is considered to be because of other secret causes that are a sign of the company failing.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#168

Post by volkk » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

tannerc wrote: post #158

paganel wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What exactly indicates the post was AI generated?

i've been using AI for as long as GPT has been out, so if you can't see through the rambling, overly complex to make you sound smarter kind of text, as well as the written patterns that are always used ad nauseam like "this thing isn't JUST this, it's THIS" -- i dunno how else to prove it to you. IYKYK.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#169

Post by kburman » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:59 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...

I realize it’s easy to pattern-match this news to 'hiring in India vs. firing in US' given the current climate, but having worked at Amazon India for 4 years, I can tell you the cuts happen there too.

Amazon has a history of annual restructuring that hits every region. It isn't necessarily a direct relocation strategy so much as their standard operational churn. The 'efficiency' cuts are happening globally, India included.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#170

Post by loeg » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #121

rich_sasha wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

2008 was a lot worse.