Nearly 2,200 Seattle-area jobs included in latest round of Amazon corporate layoffs

By Brett Davis
The Center Square

Amazon is cutting approximately 2,200 corporate roles from the Seattle area as part of the company’s broader 16,000-person global layoff, according to a filing with the state Employment Security Department.

Of the nearly 2,200 employees laid off in the Jan. 30 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filing, more than 1,400 were based in Seattle, more than 600 in Bellevue, and the rest, including some based remotely, were spread across various locations in Washington state.

The layoffs are to take effect from late April through late June.

“While WARN requires only 60 days’ advance notice, Amazon is providing at least 90 days’ notice to all affected employees before their separations are scheduled to occur,” the filing states. “Affected employees who accept internal transfer opportunities at Amazon prior to their separation date will not be separated as a result of this action.”

When Seattle-based Amazon announced its plan to shed 16,000 corporate jobs last week, The Center Square asked the tech giant how many of those lost jobs were in the Seattle area, and was told by company spokesperson Zoë Hoffmann that “We aren’t breaking down by city, so [we] would point you back to Beth’s letter.”

In a memo to employees last week announcing the 16,000 layoffs, Amazon Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology Beth Galetti explained that the workforce reduction was part of the company’s restructuring to streamline operations and reduce bureaucracy.

In October 2025, Amazon announced the elimination of approximately 14,000 corporate roles.

The company’s corporate restructuring is driven by a desire to reverse pandemic-era over-hiring, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate the adoption of generative AI.

Amazon is also laying off approximately 400 workers in Washington as part of its decision to shutter all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores nationwide. The layoffs, which take effect in late April, will impact nearly a dozen facilities in Seattle, Bellevue, Mill Creek and Puyallup.

Amazon isn’t the only tech company that is handing out layoff notices locally. Expedia Group, which is also based in Seattle, and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, have also recently announced job cuts in the Seattle area.

T-Mobile is laying off 393 employees across Washington, according to a WARN filing filed on Monday.

Significant tech layoffs at major Seattle employers like Amazon, Expedia and Meta have sparked fears of a severe economic downturn in Seattle and Washington.

“The tech side layoffs are caused by AI and normal downsizing; however, the tech companies are certainly looking at other states to relocate employees to,” Mark Harmsworth, director of the Small Business Center at the Washington Policy Center think tank, emailed The Center Square last week. “I suspect we will continue to see small layoff batches this year (quiet quitting) and at some point something more significant if Olympia continues to pursue the head, wealth and income tax direction.”