Amazon targets as many as 30k corporate job cuts, sources say

Timing and Stated Rationale

• Many see the timing—days before an earnings call and the holidays—as primarily about hitting quarterly numbers, not “pandemic overhiring.”
• Commenters note Amazon has used “pandemic overhiring” to justify multiple rounds of layoffs over several years and question why investors still treat it as credible.
• Some expect the layoffs will be framed as “AI-driven efficiency,” even though several argue that’s PR more than reality.

Scale and Human Impact

• 30,000 jobs, roughly 10% of corporate staff, is described less as “cleanup” and more as a “decimation” or “massacre.”
• People highlight non-abstract consequences: loss of health insurance, forced moves, children changing schools, and in extreme cases mental health crises and suicide.
• Others note that the burden often falls on line workers and ICs while the leadership that created the bloat remains.

AWS, Retail, Finances, and AI

• Debate over whether AWS is a truly separate company vs just a major subsidiary/segment under Amazon’s holding structure.
• Disagreement on finances: some call AWS the cash cow that can easily fund $100B+ in capex; others assert AWS free cash flow is insufficient and subsidized by retail and corporate debt.
• Several reject the idea that the layoffs are a response to a recent AWS outage; they see this as a standard pre-earnings cost cut.
• A quoted analyst ties cuts to AI productivity gains; multiple commenters say there’s no clear evidence of that and see the AI angle as investor-friendly spin.

Bloat, Management, and Culture

• Some welcome the cuts as a needed reset for a bloated org rife with middle-management turf wars, tenured coasters, and process theater (six-pagers, “leadership principles” rhetoric).
• Others counter that profitable or strategically important teams are also being “decimated,” projects offshored, and maintenance work canceled, suggesting efficiency is not the real driver.
• Cutting managers is reported to push more managerial and process work onto engineers, increasing paperwork rather than agility.

Geography, Visas, and Offshoring

• Open question whether “corporate” mainly means expensive US-based staff or a global mix.
• One data analysis (linked in-thread) claims the share of job postings in offshored countries has nearly tripled since 2020, suggesting a structural shift rather than one-off trimming.
• Some argue the effective tightening of H‑1B will push more hiring into foreign offices; others note offshoring is already cheaper regardless of visa policy and hard to regulate.

Shareholders vs Workers and Broader Reflections

• Critics see the move as transferring several more billions from workers to already-profitable shareholders, in a context of ~$59B net profit.
• Defenders respond that a company’s job is to maximize profit and stock price, not stop at “enough.”
• Others see layoffs and buybacks as signs of a mature company out of growth ideas, and personally avoid such stocks.
• Broader comments lament an economy focused on financial engineering over innovation, with high living costs and consolidation making it harder to start and grow smaller, more resilient firms.