Amazon has cut 16,616 employees across two confirmed 2026 events. The corporate wave of 16,000 was announced by SVP Beth Galetti on January 28, targeting management layers across the company and phased through May as multi-state WARN notices rolled out. On April 21, a separate and distinct Florida WARN filing added 616 layoffs tied to the closure of the Homestead warehouse for a two-year renovation beginning July 2.
The January cuts targeted middle management specifically, with CEO Andy Jassy pushing to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers. Jassy has publicly tied the restructuring to AI-driven productivity, stating the company will "need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today."
The April 21 Homestead event is a different story entirely. These are warehouse and logistics workers at a single South Florida facility, not corporate or managerial roles. Amazon plans to reopen the facility in 2028 with roughly 1,000 workers, but the current layoffs are permanent. Miami-Dade County is pursuing action against Amazon over a 17-year employment commitment made when the site opened, and the Strauss Borrelli firm has opened a WARN Act investigation over a potential 60-day notice violation.
A widely circulated claim of a 14,000-person "second wave" in March 2026 was based on viral social media posts and alleged internal documents. Amazon explicitly denied those reports as "not true, and not based on any fact." That wave is not included in our totals because no WARN filing, SEC disclosure, or company confirmation ever substantiated it.