Amazon Cuts Nearly 1,000 Jobs, India Retail Employees Among Affected

Amazon has cut nearly 1,000 white-collar jobs across the United States, India and the United Kingdom, with the latest layoffs primarily affecting its Stores division, which runs the company’s core e-commerce business. The cuts come as Amazon continues to restructure parts of its retail operations while significantly increasing investment in artificial intelligence and related infrastructure.

The latest workforce reduction comes during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days shopping event and follows a much larger round of more than 30,000 job cuts that began last year and continued into January. Amazon said the latest changes are intended to create a structure that better supports its current business priorities.

Amazon Cuts Around 1,000 Jobs

Amazon confirmed that it has eliminated around 1,000 roles, mainly within its Stores organisation.

The company said the restructuring affects several parts of the Stores business, including customer service and selling partner services. Employees in India, the US and the UK have received notices related to the latest cuts.

Key detail	Information
Jobs affected	Nearly 1,000
Type of roles	White-collar
Main division affected	Amazon Stores
Countries affected	India, US and UK
Other affected areas	Customer service, selling partner services
Timing	October 2026
Previous major cuts	More than 30,000 jobs

Amazon said the latest changes are part of an ongoing effort to adjust its organisational structure and align resources with areas it considers important for future growth.

India Employees Among Those Affected

Employees in Amazon’s India operations are among those affected by the latest round of layoffs.

India has become one of Amazon’s major global talent and operating hubs, with employees supporting retail, technology, product development, operations and other functions.

The latest cuts are particularly notable because they come while Amazon is simultaneously expanding its e-commerce infrastructure in India ahead of the country’s festive shopping season.

Amazon recently announced a major expansion of its India operations network, including new fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations.

The company is also rapidly expanding Amazon Now, its instant-delivery service, which had reached more than 60 cities in September and was targeting further expansion ahead of Diwali.

Amazon Stores Division Bears the Brunt

The Stores division is responsible for Amazon’s core retail operations.

The latest restructuring affects multiple teams within the organisation rather than being limited to one specific function. Internal communications reviewed by Reuters indicated that customer service and selling partner services were among the areas affected.

Amazon’s explanation suggests that the company is changing how the Stores business is organised rather than simply reducing its retail ambitions.

The distinction is important because Amazon continues to invest heavily in its e-commerce infrastructure even as it reduces corporate headcount.

Layoffs Come During Prime Big Deal Days

The latest cuts were announced while Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days shopping event was underway.

The two-day event began on October 6 and offers discounts across a wide range of product categories.

The timing highlights the different directions within Amazon’s retail business.

On one side, the company continues to invest in fulfilment capacity, faster delivery and customer-facing services. On the other, it is streamlining corporate teams and reducing roles in parts of the retail organisation.

Amazon is therefore attempting to grow its retail business while operating with a leaner corporate structure.

Amazon Has Already Cut More Than 30,000 Jobs

The latest layoffs are not an isolated workforce reduction.

Amazon has eliminated more than 30,000 jobs in a much larger restructuring programme that began last year and continued into January. The company has subsequently carried out smaller rounds of reductions across different business units.

The broader restructuring has focused on removing organisational layers, improving efficiency and redirecting resources toward strategic priorities.

Amazon’s workforce changes have therefore occurred alongside continued investment in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and logistics.

AI Investment Continues Despite Job Cuts

Amazon’s latest layoffs come at the same time that the company is preparing to dramatically increase its spending on AI infrastructure.

Amazon is preparing to spend a record $220 billion on data centres, chips and other infrastructure supporting AI and related operations. CEO Andy Jassy has said the majority of this investment will be directed toward Amazon Web Services, with much of the spending expected to support AI workloads.

This illustrates a broader shift within Amazon: the company is reducing some categories of corporate employment while increasing spending on technologies that it believes will drive future growth.

AI is becoming central to Amazon’s cloud, retail and customer-service strategies.

Amazon Is Hiring for AI and Cloud Roles

The company’s workforce strategy is not simply about reducing employee numbers.

Amazon has also been approaching some former employees about returning to the company for positions in artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud computing, according to Business Insider reporting cited by Business Standard.

Recruiters have contacted former employees about opportunities within AI and machine-learning teams.

Amazon said rehiring former employees is a longstanding practice and that former employees, including those previously laid off, can be considered for open positions depending on the company’s hiring needs.

This suggests that Amazon is reallocating its workforce toward areas it considers strategically important rather than applying an identical hiring freeze across the organisation.

Why Amazon Is Restructuring

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos recently addressed the company’s earlier workforce expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with Fox News, Bezos said Amazon significantly increased its headcount during the pandemic as consumers shifted toward online shopping. He said the company subsequently needed to adjust its workforce as those conditions changed.

The pandemic produced an extraordinary surge in e-commerce demand, prompting Amazon to expand its workforce and infrastructure rapidly.

As consumer behaviour normalised, the company began reassessing its organisational structure and staffing requirements.

Amazon Is Expanding Its India Operations

The latest layoffs should not be interpreted as an overall withdrawal from India.

Amazon has continued to expand its physical and digital infrastructure in the country.

In September, the company announced 20 new fulfilment centres, six new sort centres and 150 new last-mile delivery stations. The expansion increased its storage capacity by 50% to approximately 64 million cubic feet.

Amazon Now has also expanded rapidly in India as the company competes with Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Flipkart Minutes in the quick-commerce market.

This means the company’s India strategy is simultaneously focused on expansion and efficiency.

Amazon’s AI Strategy Is Changing the Workforce

Amazon’s latest restructuring reflects a broader transformation taking place across the technology industry.

Companies are increasingly using AI to automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity and redesign how teams operate. This does not necessarily mean that every job eliminated during an AI-focused restructuring is directly replaced by an AI system.

Instead, companies can use AI adoption as an opportunity to reconsider management layers, workflows and the allocation of employees.

Amazon’s continued hiring in AI and cloud alongside cuts in other parts of the organisation illustrates this shift.

The Bigger Picture

Amazon’s latest round of nearly 1,000 job cuts shows how the company’s workforce is being reshaped even as its overall investment in technology continues to grow. The cuts are concentrated mainly in the Stores organisation, while Amazon is directing enormous amounts of capital toward AI infrastructure, cloud computing and other strategic areas.

For India, the development is significant because employees in the country’s retail organisation are among those affected. At the same time, Amazon continues to expand fulfilment infrastructure and instant delivery in the Indian market, indicating that the company is restructuring how it operates rather than abandoning its India growth plans.

Looking Ahead

Amazon’s next challenge will be balancing a leaner corporate workforce with continued expansion across e-commerce, cloud computing and AI. The company’s ability to shift employees and investment toward faster-growing areas while maintaining customer service and retail execution will be closely watched.

For workers, the restructuring highlights a broader change across the technology sector: employment growth is increasingly concentrated in areas such as AI, machine learning, cloud computing and specialised technology infrastructure. Amazon’s latest moves show that even companies continuing to invest heavily and expand in major markets can simultaneously reduce headcount in other parts of the business.