Key Points
- Amazon accidentally sent an email to some AWS employees about layoffs that are scheduled for Wednesday.
- The email was a commiseration message that wrongly stated the employees had already been informed of their termination.
- The company had previously signaled that more job cuts were coming in 2026.
- The latest round of layoffs is expected to affect employees in the AWS, retail, Prime Video, and human resources divisions.
Amazon appears to have accidentally tipped off some of its cloud-computing employees about a round of layoffs that are scheduled for Wednesday. On Tuesday, some Amazon Web Services (AWS) employees received an email from a senior vice president that seemed to be a commiseration message for those who were about to lose their jobs. The problem? The layoffs hadn’t happened yet.
The email, which was signed by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions, wrongly stated that the impacted employees in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica had “already been informed” that they had lost their jobs. The message also included an invitation to a team-wide meeting on Wednesday, which was almost immediately canceled after the email was sent.
“Changes like this are hard on everyone,” Aubrey wrote in the email. “These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”
This premature announcement is the latest in a series of job cuts at the e-commerce giant. Reuters had reported last week that Amazon was planning to lay off thousands of corporate employees this week. The company has not yet officially confirmed the plan, but this errant email seems to be a clear sign that the cuts are coming.
This is not the first time Amazon has made major layoffs. The company cut about 14,000 jobs in October as part of a broader plan to reduce its corporate staff by around 30,000. In an October blog post, the head of human resources tied those job cuts to the increased use of artificial intelligence.
For now, the affected AWS employees are left in a state of uncertainty, waiting for the official announcement on Wednesday.
