Uber Technologies will lay off 200 of its recruiters, mere months after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the ride-hail company would rely on “performance reviews” to trim staff, rather than formal cuts.
The staff reductions were detailed on Wednesday in a memo sent to employees and obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Less than 1% of the company’s total staff will be affected, though the move hits 35% of the recruiting team.
Hundreds of jobs have been cut this year from the company’s freight unit and its overseas food-delivery operations, all adding up to less than 3% of Uber’s employees, The Wall Street Journal said. Uber employs 32,000 people around the world, not including drivers, who are not considered staff.
In February, Khosrowshahi said that rather than laying people off, the company was going to conduct “even more rigorous” performance reviews to weed people out, Insider reported. Just four months later, the company appears to be changing its tune.
“With attrition being low, the size of the talent acquisition team needs to be rightsized to our hiring strategy and set the business up for ongoing success,” chief people officer Nikki Krishnamurthy wrote in the memo, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Uber’s food-delivery services, like other online retail, jumped during the COVID-19 lockdowns and the worst of the pandemic, as people remained homebound. Now, with people getting out and about, the economic conditions have changed. Grubhub and DoorDash have also cut staff.
Uber’s stock prices, meanwhile, have increased 70% this year, The Wall Street Journal noted.