Uber recently announced it will be laying off another 3,000 employees.
With millions of people staying home to slow the virus’s spread, ride-hailing has suffered, and Uber is one of them.
As the ride hailing company tries to weather the damage to its business from the coronavirus pandemic, it just recently announced it will be laying off another 3,000 employees two weeks after the company cut 3,700 jobs and said it would eliminate $1 billion in costs this year. The cuts will not affect Uber drivers, the company clarified.
Even before the pandemic, Uber was grappling with huge losses, the BBC reports. But its challenges have multiplied as activity plunges during the pandemic. The number of Uber rides dropped 80% last month at the height of the lockdowns in the US and Canada. Meanwhile, although its Uber Eats food delivery business has surged, it remains loss-making.
The head of the firm said the moves were necessary “to secure our future”.
“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,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in an email to staff on Monday announcing the latest cuts. “I realized that hoping the world would return to normal within any predictable time frame, so we could pick up where we left off on our path to profitability, was not a viable option,” he said.
According to NPR, the company is also reorganizing its business to focus on its core ride-hailing and food-delivery offerings. It is shutting or consolidating 45 offices around the world. It’s closing down some units, including an artificial intelligence lab. And it may sell Uber Works, a temporary staffing venture. Uber is also in talks to acquire rival GrubHub in a deal that would make Uber the country’s biggest food-delivery app.
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