Uber is cutting roughly 10% of its staff in the rideshare company’s largest round of layoffs since 2020, the company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a message to employees on Wednesday.
Key Facts
- The staffing cuts are designed to make Uber “simpler and faster, and create more capacity to invest in our future,” Khosrowshahi told employees on Wednesday, adding the company plans to use its savings to invest more in drivers, couriers and the “autonomous future.”
- Uber employs roughly 34,000 people globally in over 70 countries, the company said in its most recent annual report filed at the end of 2025—however Bloomberg reported the layoffs will impact about 3,300 jobs and bring the company’s total headcount below 30,000.
- The cuts will aim to reduce “management layers” and “micro-teams” with only 1-2 people, Khosrowshahi said, as well as simplify team structures.
- The company said this would impact about 20% of the employees that sit seven layers below the CEO, Khosrowshahi said, and eliminate about 50% of the company’s “micro-teams.”
- This 20% will primarily include managers as well as some other employees, a spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg, who first reported the layoffs citing an internal email from the CEO.
Surprising Fact
Khosrowshahi also said the company would prioritize their employees working from the office together in their two major hubs—San Francisco and New York. The CEO said the company was asking the “vast majority” of its remote employees to return to the office. Less than 1% of the workforce would be allowed to work remotely in the future, and company plans enforce its hybrid work policy requiring three days a week in-office. Uber still plans to maintain some regional and international hub offices.
News Peg
Uber’s stock price rose slightly on Wednesday morning after markets opened. However, Uber’s stock price is down about 7.7% year-to-date, and has underperformed the S&P 500 index this year. Investors are likely watching as the company faces increasing competition from autonomous ride hailing and robotaxi companies like Waymo and Zoox.
Key Background
Wednesday’s decision marks Uber’s largest round of layoffs since 2020, when the company slashed 3,700 jobs (about 14% of its entire workforce) at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Days later, the company announced to employees it would cut another 3,000 jobs and close 45 offices. However, the company has seen more targeted layoffs in the past few years, most recently in their human resources department. In June, Uber announced it would eliminate 23% of its people division, which accounted for less than 1% of its total headcount. Uber’s estimated 10 million drivers are primarily classified as independent contractors.
This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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