Amazon denies reports of 14,000 layoffs planned for May: ‘…not based in fact’
Amazon has denied multiple media reports that it planned to lay off 14,000 employees in May.
On Wednesday, a report went viral claiming that the company would go through another round of mass layoffs that would cause 14,000 of its employees to lose their jobs, after laying off 16,000 employees in January. It was first reported on the Blind business forum and later covered by Chinese technology portal Lei Feng.
Mint When they reached out to Amazon for a response, the company said, “These reports are false and not based on fact.”
The post on Blind claimed that this information came from an insider who said these layoffs would come with “a lot of restructuring” and that information about this is closely guarded by the company.
In a memo to employees in June 2025, the company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, claimed that by integrating artificial intelligence into the company’s operation, Amazon “will need fewer people to do some of the jobs done today.”
Amazon isn’t the only tech company to have mass layoffs in recent months. Oracle recently laid off nearly 30,000 employees via 6 a.m. email. Of the 30,000 people fired by Oracle, 12,000 are believed to be Indian.
Microsoft, TCS and Accenture also recently laid off thousands of people.
Sony will reduce its workforce
Entertainment company Sony Pictures is also laying off several hundred employees, according to a report from Reuters.
But the report, citing sources familiar with the matter, found that these layoffs were not part of the company’s cost-cutting plans but were instead targeted and strategic.
It comes at a time when Hollywood studios are struggling to adapt to the changing habits of audiences and there is growing pressure to re-evaluate their spending as they invest heavily in streaming.
US employment data: What does it say?
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the week ending March 28 fell by 9,000 to 202,000, from 211,000 the previous week, according to a Labor Department report. That’s fewer than the 212,000 new filings analysts polled by data firm FactSet expected and is within the range of the past few years.
Unemployment claims are considered a proxy for layoffs in the U.S. and are a close to real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
Weekly jobless claims have mostly stabilized in the 200,000 to 250,000 range since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. But hiring began to slow a few years ago and declines further in 2025 due to the lingering effects of President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff impositions, purges of the federal workforce and higher interest rates aimed at containing inflation.
