Employers
Amazon eliminated jobs in its devices and services unit on Wednesday, Oct. 28, the business that makes Kindle e-readers, Echo speakers and other Alexa hardware. The company confirmed the cuts but did not give a number. Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the cuts affected no more than 250 jobs, primarily in software development.
The layoffs landed on the same day Amazon introduced a new slate of Alexa-powered hardware, and after weeks of product rollouts that, according to Reuters, included new Kindle e-readers and tablet computers.
What Amazon confirmed, and what it did not
Amazon confirmed the reductions after an inquiry from Reuters. “We’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles,” a spokesperson said, adding that the changes would help the company “operate more efficiently and better align with our product roadmap.”
The company did not disclose how many employees were affected, which teams or locations were involved, or whether workers outside the United States were included. The figure of up to 250 jobs, and the description of the affected roles as mostly in software development, come from Reuters’ source and have not been confirmed by Amazon.
According to Reuters, Amazon notified affected employees by text message and email early Wednesday morning, as is its custom. One message seen by the news agency came from Cherie Robinson, a human resources vice president in devices and services, who said the company had undergone “a thorough review of our structure” that resulted in the need for cuts.
A busy launch day
The timing put layoffs and product launches side by side. On Oct. 28, Amazon announced five Alexa devices, according to Engadget: a new Echo Dot at $99; the Echo Time, a $199 smart alarm clock; an Alexa Photo Frame starting at $200; an Echo Studio with a built-in camera at $250; and a redesigned Echo Show 16 smart display, priced from $500, which opened for pre-orders and is due to ship by the end of the year. The Echo Time’s wake-up features and the Photo Frame’s built-in assistant rely on Alexa+, Amazon’s newer version of its voice assistant.
Reuters and The Next Web each reported that the cuts followed those rollouts. Amazon did not say whether the launch schedule played any part in the timing of the reductions, and it did not describe the cuts as related to automation or artificial intelligence.
Separate from this month's retail cuts
The devices cuts are a separate round from the reductions Amazon made earlier in October in its Stores business, the division that runs its core e-commerce site. In that round, confirmed by the company on Oct. 7, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters that fewer than 1,000 white-collar workers were let go, with employees in the United States, India and the United Kingdom receiving notices. Amazon described those changes as adjustments to “parts of our Stores business.”
Both rounds follow a much larger series of about 30,000 corporate job cuts that began in 2025 and continued into January, according to Reuters, which described the October retail round as the latest in a series of smaller reductions since then.
Amazon is scheduled to report third-quarter results after the market closes on Thursday, Oct. 29.
What it means for tech workers
For job seekers, the main signal is the type of role involved. If Reuters’ account is accurate, the cuts fall mostly on software developers in a hardware-and-services unit, adding experienced consumer-electronics engineers to the market in late October. Because Amazon has not given a headcount, team list or locations, the reductions should not be read as a broad pullback across its devices business, and the company has not said whether further cuts in the unit are planned.
Sources
- Reuters via KELO, “Amazon cuts more jobs, in devices unit, after flurry of product rollouts,” October 28, 2026. https://kelo.com/2026/10/28/amazon-cuts-more-jobs-in-devices-unit-after-flurry-of-product-rollouts/
- The Next Web, “Amazon cuts up to 250 jobs in its devices unit, Reuters reports,” October 29, 2026. https://thenextweb.com/news/amazon-devices-unit-job-cuts
- Engadget, “All the Amazon Echo devices announced today: Echo Time, Alexa Photo Frame and more,” October 28, 2026. https://www.engadget.com/2299032/all-amazon-echo-news-october-2026/
- Reuters via WBOW, “Amazon makes fresh job cuts, mainly in retail division,” October 7, 2026. https://1027wbow.com/2026/10/07/amazon-makes-fresh-job-cuts-mainly-in-retail-division/
Featured photo: A black Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker, photographed June 3, 2018. Representative image; not one of the devices Amazon announced on Oct. 28, 2026. Photo: Gregory Varnum, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
.jpg){kind=link}