Uber to Cut 10% of Workforce in Cost-Cutting Overhaul

Uber is laying off 10% of its global workforce as part of a broader effort to streamline and simplify the company, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a message to employees published Wednesday on Uber's website.

The cuts amount to roughly 3,400 jobs, based on Uber's headcount at the end of last year.

The company said it is removing organizational layers, simplifying team structures and taking other steps to boost efficiency. Khosrowshahi said the job cuts will free up resources to invest more in Uber's drivers, couriers and merchants, and to drive innovation, including in autonomous driving.

"To do those things, we need to make deliberate choices about where we put our people, our time, and our capital," he wrote in the memo.

Wedbush Securities estimated in a report that the layoffs would save Uber roughly $1.7 billion.

Alongside the layoffs, Uber announced a new "location strategy" that effectively mandates in-person work at its major office hubs. "The benefits of sitting together, collaborating in person, and solving problems as a team are clearer than ever in our post-COVID world," Khosrowshahi said, adding that Uber is "establishing clearer principles for where roles and teams should be based, with the goal of concentrating teams in a smaller number of key hubs."

Uber is requiring most of its remote employees to relocate to a location where they can report to an office. The company said only about 1% of workers will be permitted to work remotely going forward.

Uber, founded in 2009 as a ride-hailing company, has since expanded into other businesses, including food and retail delivery. Uber shares rose as much as 2.5% on Wednesday following the announcement.