Amazon may layoff around 16000 employees on January 27, India teams likely to be hit severely

Amazon is reportedly preparing for a fresh round of layoffs, with around 16,000 employees expected to lose their jobs starting January 27. According to reports, the impending job cuts are expected to impact Indian teams as well, including key divisions such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Prime Video.

Amazon is heading for another major round of workforce reduction this week. The tech giant is reportedly planning a fresh round of layoffs on January 27, which could impact around 16,000 employees globally. The move is expected to be part of a wider restructuring drive that could see nearly 30,000 corporate roles eliminated by mid-2026. Notably, this round of cuts is expected to have a wider geographic impact, with India-based teams likely to be hit harder than before.

According to multiple reports and employee chatter on platforms such as Blind and Reddit, Amazon is expected to announce job cuts in coming days, with India-based teams likely to be among the hardest hit. The layoffs are also expected to cut across departments, with employees in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Prime Video said to be among those at risk. Amazon’s ongoing restructuring drive began in late 2025, when the company eliminated around 14,000 white-collar roles in October as part of the first phase of the exercise.

By the end of 2025, a Reuters report said Amazon was planning to cut around 30,000 corporate jobs as part of a wider restructuring effort. Following those reports, the company confirmed its plans to cut around 14,000 roles. The company is now expected to roll out the second phase of job cuts, potentially adding another 16,000 roles to that tally and pushing total job losses close to 30,000.

If that happens, it would surpass even the massive 27,000 layoffs Amazon carried out across 2022 and 2023. While Amazon employs roughly 1.57 million people globally, the focus of these cuts remains on its white-collar corporate workforce, which numbers around 350,000 employees.

The upcoming layoffs at Amazon are expected to affect multiple key divisions, including AWS, Prime Video, retail operations, and the People Experience and Technology (PXT) division, Amazon’s internal HR arm. Indian corporate teams, particularly those based in cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, are seen as especially vulnerable this time.

Internal communications and anonymous posts by Amazon employees across platforms such as Reddit, Blind, and LinkedIn suggest that the layoff process could begin early in the week of January 27. Several employees posting on Blind have claimed that managers and senior leaders have already hinted at impending cuts. Others have said that employees currently on performance improvement plans (PIPs) may be informed ahead of the wider workforce.