Amazon is trying to rehire workers it laid off, emails show

Amazon wants erstwhile workforce back, including several it laid off.

The business is reaching out to eligible erstwhile workforce concerning open roles throughout Amazon, including in its cloud-computing and AI businesses, according to recruiter emails obtained by Business Insider and a business spokesperson.

In one outreach final month, Amazon's AI delegate organization, led by AWS VP Swami Sivasubramanian, welcomed erstwhile workforce in AI and device learning sectors to conversation new roles through what a recruiter called "Swami's Boomerang Reengagement Initiative."

In another case, an AWS Finance recruiter offered a erstwhile employee a shortened way rear to an recommendation and asked whether Amazon's return-to-office policy had driven the employee away.

"A lot has changed since you were here, and there's several really compelling activity happening throughout AI/ML correct now," among the emails stated.

The emails display Amazon tapping its alumni network in the combat for AI endowment against the likes of Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic. It is reaching out to erstwhile workers whose cognition it already knows, offering several a faster path back, and, in one case, asking whether its in-office command drove person away.

Amazon has cut additional than 30,000 jobs in multiple rounds of layoffs complete the former year, among the largest workforce reductions in its history.

Haley Silva, an Amazon spokesperson, told Business Insider that boomerang hiring is a normal, longstanding companywide practice, not a new program constricted to AI or haze computing.

Silva stated eligible erstwhile workers can contain group Amazon laid off, but that the business is recruiting for open roles and is not specifically targeting workforce who remaining since of RTO. Amazon's in-office expectations remain unchanged, she added.

"We're continually curious in connecting alongside gifted group — the two new candidates and erstwhile Amazonians — for open roles," Silva said. "Rehiring erstwhile workforce is a normal, longstanding part of how we recruit, and our rehire and discussion practices are accordant throughout the company."

Boomerang growth

Amazon has floated rehiring laid-off workforce before. In 2023, AWS's Human Resources VP Ian Wilson told workforce that many workers affected by the company's job cuts were eligible for rehire. He stated Amazon should regard how to "proactively broaden an invitation" to erstwhile workforce who wanted to return.

Amazon's RTO guideline has been a persistent endowment challenge. Business Insider reported in 2025 that its five-day mandate and agency hub requirements were hampering recruitment for AI roles, alongside several candidates accepting lower-paying jobs elsewhere for additional elasticity to activity from home.

Boomerang hiring has risen as employers rotate to erstwhile workers. Returning workforce made up 35% of US new hires in March 2025, up from 31% a twelvemonth earlier, according to ADP payroll data. In the tech sector, they accounted for nearly two-thirds of new hires. ADP stated boomerangs can bring hard-to-find skills during getting up to speed faster than exterior hires.

The email from the AWS Finance recruiter shows that Amazon's outreach extends beyond AI. The recruiter told a erstwhile employee who had remaining in fine position that they could complete a abbreviated discussion loop, afterward move to an offer.

The recruiter additionally asked whether RTO had been a chief logic for leaving, saying the reply would assistance Amazon tailor forthcoming outreach to the worker's remote-work and location preferences.

"Please cognize that I'm delicate to these concerns," the recruiter wrote.

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