Uber lays off another 3,000 employees

Uber is laying off another 3,000 employees as the coronavirus pandemic cuts into demand for its services, the company announced on Monday.

Combined with the previously announced layoffs of 3,700 workers in customer support and recruiting roles, the ride-sharing giant has now lost roughly 25 percent of its staff since the beginning of May.

Uber is also closing around 40 of its offices worldwide, winding down its AI Labs and merging its delivery services, including Eats.

“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,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

“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,” he said.

Uber announced during its first-quarter earnings call that that its core ride-sharing business saw an 80 percent drop in demand in April as stay-at-home orders keep many Americans from traveling.

Fellow ride-sharing service Lyft laid off 17 percent of its workforce late last month.

The drivers who depend on the platforms for their income have been the hardest hit by the drop in demand, especially since they lack access to paid leave, health care and unemployment benefits enjoyed by full-time employees.