Amazon freezes retail hiring budget for 2025 amid job cuts

Amazon is freezing its hiring budget for its retail business this year, according to a report by Business Insider.

As per the report, an internal email revealed that the Seattle-based retailer plans to keep "flat headcount opex," or operating expense, this year compared to last. These costs include employee salaries and stock-based compensation.

An Amazon executive shared earlier this year that any rise in the hiring budget will face close scrutiny and require strong justifications.


The retail business is shifting its focus from headcount targets to managing teams based on fixed operating budgets. Amazon’s retail division covers a wide range of operations, including its online store, logistics network, and fresh grocery service.

These changes affect only corporate staff in Amazon’s retail division, not warehouse workers or those in Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division.

An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the company will continue hiring, and a freeze on increasing the hiring budget doesn’t mean recruitment is stopping.

"Each of Amazon's many businesses has its own approach to hiring based on its individual needs," said Hoffman. "However, across the company, we've historically considered both the number of people we need to hire and the associated costs — that is, operating expenses or opex — of those hiring decisions."

This report immediately follows the job cut announcement in Amazon’s books division, including at Goodreads and Kindle units. The company stated that fewer than 100 employees were impacted, and that the aim was to boost efficiency and streamline operations.

The news aligns with CEO Andy Jassy’s ongoing focus on improving profit margins and operational efficiency. He is also working to cut down on what he describes as excessive bureaucracy within the company, including reducing the number of managerial roles.

Last month, Amazon also laid off workers in its devices and services division.

However, it is to be noted that, despite these reductions, the company added approximately 4,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.