Uber announces further job losses in wake of Covid-19 outbreak
Uber has announced plans to further reduce its operating expenses in response to the economic challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ride hailing firm has been hard hit by the slowdown in travel caused by the outbreak.
As part of a restructuring, the company expects to reduce its workforce by approximately 3,000 full-time employee roles.
In connection with these actions, Uber said it estimates that it will incur approximately $175-$220 million in charges.
The latest layoffs bring the total reductions in recent weeks to a quarter of the workforce, with around 6,700 staff to go in total.
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The tech company is also closing or consolidating more than 40 offices and winding down units such as its artificial intelligence lab.
Uber said it hoped to save US$1 billion by the end of the year through the changes.
In a statement, Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber chief executive, said: “Given the dramatic impact of the pandemic, and the unpredictable nature of any eventual recovery, we are concentrating our efforts on our core mobility and delivery platforms and resizing our company to match the realities of our business.
“That’s led us to some painful decisions today: we are stopping some of our non-core investments and reducing the size of our workforce by around 3,000 people, each of whom I want to personally thank for their contributions to Uber.
“As I said to our teams today, we are making these hard choices now so that we can move forward and begin to build again with confidence.”