Amazon and American Express among dozens of major Companies cutting 16,000 jobs
Amazon, the online retail giant, is cutting 16,000 corporate roles globally to slash bureaucracy.
The short version
- American Express, the credit card and financial services company, is cutting up to 4,000 jobs.
- Check your portfolio if you hold shares in tech and finance firms facing AI restructuring.
Why it matters to you. For business owners and investors, the widespread shift signals that major corporations are permanently altering their staffing models to lean on automated systems.
Check your statements and portfolios this week. Amazon, the online retail giant, and American Express, the credit card and financial services company, are leading a fresh wave of major corporate job cuts as firms across industries restructure around artificial intelligence, according to Business Insider.
Amazon said in January that it would eliminate around 16,000 corporate roles globally in an effort to cut back on bureaucracy. Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, described the move in a company memo. The cuts followed mass layoffs from October 2025, when the tech and retail giant shed 14,000 roles, followed by more reductions in its Selling Partner Services team.
Meanwhile, American Express took a $336 million restructuring charge as it plans to cut around 5% of its workforce, impacting between 3,000 and 4,000 employees. Stephen Squeri, CEO of American Express, highlighted during an October earnings call how artificial intelligence has changed the company's internal structure and increased productivity.
Other major firms, including Atlassian, the enterprise software company and maker of Confluence, and Barclays, the British financial institution, are also cutting thousands of jobs to drive technological efficiency. Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said that about 1,600 employees will be affected by the cuts.
Barclays Group Finance Director Anna Cross told investors the bank expects more than GBP 1 billion in efficiency savings by reducing head count by 5,000 full-time employees, with 60% of affected workers in support functions as artificial intelligence makes staff more productive.
When household names trim thousands of roles at once, the ripple effects touch everything from commercial real estate demand to software spending across the board.
Photo: SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
