Uber Inc plans to cut 3,000 more jobs and close 45 offices — all while eyeing other cutbacks as the COVID-19 economy keeps pummeling the ride-hailing giant. Job cuts do not include drivers, who technically are not employees.
Meanwhile, the company is seeking to buy Uber Eats rival Grubhub, which spurned the offer over the weekend. The talks between the two companies have so far not been fruitful.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the latest cutback plans in an email to staff today Monday (May 18). Uber’s rides business was down 80 percent in April from the same month the previous year.
The move comes less than two weeks after Uber laid off 3,700 employees, or 14 percent of its global workforce. In total, the company has eliminated around a quarter of its staff in less than a month and announced that it will close 45 offices globally
In a regulatory filing, Uber said, “Due to lower trip volumes in its rides segment and the company’s current hiring freeze, the company is reducing its customer support and recruiting teams by approximately 3,700 full-time employee roles.”
The combined layoff decisions mean that Uber is shedding roughly a quarter of its workforce in under a month.
In the Monday email, Khosrowshahi said, “We’re seeing some signs of a recovery, but it comes off of a deep hole, with limited visibility as to its speed and shape.” He added that Uber Eats has been a bright spot during the crisis, but “the business today doesn’t come close to covering our expenses.”
A deal with Grubhub would help the enlarged food-delivery firm save money on the cost of building out delivery operations and make it more competitive with the larger DoorDash. Khosrowshahi did not raise the issue of negotiations in his email.
