RTÉ News reports that around 300 Ireland-based jobs are at risk as a result of the layoffs.
Amazon is cutting 16,000 roles across its departments internationally. According to the company, the cuts are meant to “strengthen” the organisation by “reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy”. The move comes as the company spent close to $100bn on AI in 2025.
Amazon employs more than 6,000 people across various sites in Dublin, Cork and Drogheda, and has roughly 350,000 corporate workers globally. Its total workforce is around 1.5m.
RTÉ News reports that around 300 Ireland-based jobs are at risk as a result of the layoffs.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Amazon said that a breakdown of the number of cuts per country, as well as the specific business units affected, is unavailable. CNBC reported yesterday (27 January) that cloud computing and stores units are expected to be affected.
The company cut around 150 jobs in Ireland last October in layoffs of about 14,000 globally. In a blog post today (28 January), Amazon’s senior vice-president of people experience and technology said that the latest restructuring continues on from the changes announced in October, taking total job cuts in the round to roughly 30,000.
Reuters was the first to report the mass layoffs last year, citing sources who said that the cuts compensate for “overhiring” during the Covid-19 pandemic’s peak hiring spree. The move represents the largest cuts at the company since early 2023, when Amazon laid off some 27,000 positions.
The company, seemingly by accident, yesterday sent out an email – later marked as ‘cancelled’ – to cloud staffers announcing “organisational changes”. The note also mentioned a ‘Project Dawn’, but it is unclear what this referred to.
Last year, several top executives at Big Tech companies began sounding the alarm around AI and its impact on jobs. At the time, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company expects AI to reduce its total corporate workforce as it gains efficiency over time.
Updated, 2.56pm, 28 January 2026: This article was amended to include information reported by RTÉ about the number of Irish roles affected.
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