Uber has announced more layoffs that will reduce its product and engineering groups by about 8% as it seeks to streamline its workforce.
The ride-sharing company said the decision to cut 435 jobs — 170 in the product team and 265 in the engineering team — was “incredibly difficult” but “will result in a much stronger technical organization.”
“Now that we have over 27,000 full-time employees in cities around the world, we need to shift how we design our organizations: lean, exceptionally high-performing teams, with clear mandates and the ability to execute faster than our competitors,” Uber said in a statement.
Of those laid off, more than 85% are based in the U.S. Uber previously announced in July that it would lay off 400 people from its marketing team.
“At a certain point, bigger teams do not mean better results. It’s critical we get our edge back and continually push ourselves to do better,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees in an email.
As The New York Times reports, “Uber has been under pressure this year over its long-term viability.” Its stock fell below the offering price on its first day of trading and has continued to struggle and, in August, it reported a record quarterly loss of $5.2 billion and its slowest-ever revenue growth.
The layoffs announced on Tuesday will not affect Uber’s Eats or Freight businesses. “Our hope with these changes is to reset and improve how we work day to day — ruthlessly prioritizing, and always holding ourselves accountable to a high bar of performance and agility,” the company said.
Khosrowshahi has also tried to cut costs by instituting a monthlong hiring freeze and pushed out top executives, including his chief operating officer and chief marketing officer.
Uber employs more than 27,000 people globally, nearly half in the U.S. “We’ve seen Uber institute a number of cost-cutting measures at the driver and rider level and now the cuts are coming to the corporate side of the business in order to move towards profitability,” said Harry Campbell, founder of the industry website The Rideshare Guy.