US technology giant Amazon has informed employees of a new round of global layoffs in an email apparently sent by mistake.
A draft email written by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of Amazon Web Services (AWS), was included as part of a calendar invitation sent to several Amazon workers by an executive assistant late Tuesday.
In the email, Aubrey said a large number of employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica have been laid off as part of an effort to “consolidate the company.”
The message, seen by the BBC, was apparently shared by mistake, as it was quickly deleted. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
The invitation was titled “Send Project Dawn Email”, an apparent reference to Amazon’s code name for job cuts.
While the email made it clear that layoffs were coming at Amazon, employees had not yet been officially informed.
“This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing for over a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so we can move faster for customers,” the email said.
It added, “Changes like this are difficult for everyone. These decisions are difficult and must be made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”
Amazon announced 14,000 job cuts in late October.
This second round of layoffs had been expected by Amazon employees for several weeks, according to a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The widespread understanding among staff was that bosses wanted to cut around 30,000 roles in total, said a former employee who left the company as part of the cuts in October.
The company was expected to reach that number of job cuts with another big round of layoffs this month, followed by more layoffs by the end of May.
While laid-off employees were invited to reapply for vacant positions at Amazon, the number of such roles was limited. Those who did not move to another role received severance pay based on how long they worked at the company.
Since 2022, major tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft and others have cut down their workforce by laying off thousands of people every year.
Across the tech industry, an estimated 700,000 people have been laid off over the past four years, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts.
So far this year, Facebook owner Meta has cut more roles, affecting several hundred employees. As has Pinterest, which cut nearly 700 jobs this week.
Since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stepped down as its chief executive four years ago, his successor Andy Jassy has led the company through several rounds of layoffs in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Jesse has also attempted to bring a more rigorous work culture to the firm.
Office work is now mandatory five days a week, making Amazon one of the only major tech companies to require its employees to be in the office full time.
In an effort to limit long-standing $50 per month reimbursements, Amazon is also focusing on reducing costs, even monitoring corporate mobile phone use by AWS employees, according to a report from Business Insider.
In an email Jassy sent to employees ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday seen by the BBC, the CEO said he was grateful for the “challenges and opportunities at work” because “the world is changing so rapidly.”
Jassi called this era of Amazon “a time to rethink everything we’ve done.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the company announced it would close about 70 of its remaining Amazon-branded grocery stores, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, and expand its Whole Foods Market business.