Due to the global pandemic, Uber has resolved to lay off thousands of its employees as the effect of the epidemic continues to tell on the business.
In a filing on Wednesday, May 6, the company said that it is cutting roughly 14% or about 3,700 full-time role staff that are on the company’s customer support. Uber is planning on recruiting teams to respond to the reduced requests in the volume of rides.
“Days like these are brutal. I am truly sorry we are doing this, just as I know that we have to do this” this, the CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in an email about the layoff to staffers, which was viewed by CNN Business. The company also said that Khosrowshahi would waive his base salary for the rest of the year 2020.
This is one part of a bigger plan to make difficult but necessary changes to our cost structure so that it is in line with the reality of our business. Both variable and fixed, at every cost, we are considering many scenarios across the company, said Khosrowshahi.
An analyst for Wedbush, Daniel Ives, who has been tracking Uber, said the massive layoff was a necessary move for the company.
A week after Lyft said it would be cutting 1000 staffers and furloughing hundreds more, Uber made this announcement.
Uber shares were down nearly 4% in the early trading on Wednesday. Prior to the pandemic, both Uber and Lyft went through layoffs, and they are scheduled to report earnings results this week.