Uber laying off nearly 100 Washington workers as part of company’s largest cuts since 2020

Uber is laying off 93 workers in Washington.

The cuts hit Uber’s Seattle engineering hub particularly hard, affecting software engineers, product managers, data scientists, and management roles. According to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing, the layoffs included employees working out of Uber’s Seattle office and those working remotely in Washington. 

A company email from Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi revealed the layoffs are a consequence of the company expanding too quickly.

“I’m sure you’re asking, ‘Why, and why now?’ — particularly since our business is performing so well,” Khosrowshahi wrote. “Over the last 5+ years, Uber has grown by orders of magnitude, with our top line nearly tripling. We’ve built new products, expanded into new businesses, reached more consumers and supported more earners, and become a much larger and stronger company. But that growth has also brought complexity: more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership, and in some cases structures that made sense when businesses were smaller but no longer serve us well at our current scale.”

Employees were notified Wednesday and will receive pay and benefits through Nov. 2. According to the memo, Uber is focused on prioritizing three core principles: Organizational health, team simplification, and location strategy.

“I realize this is a lot of change, but we decided it was better to make one big shift rather than multiple small ones,” Khosrowshahi added. “We also know organizational changes can be hugely distracting, and our job is to create an environment that allows you to focus and do your best work. With these decisions now made, our focus is on the future.”

The layoffs are part of company-wide cuts that trimmed 10% of its workforce — approximately 3,300 jobs. It’s Uber’s largest round of layoffs since 2020. Additionally, Uber is removing most fully remote roles, having corporate employees instead move near core office hubs for the company, like San Francisco and New York.

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