eBay has announced 1,000 redundancies and plans to reduce the use of contractors in an attempt to cut costs.
In a letter to employees yesterday (23 January), the online retail giant’s CEO Jamie Iannone said it planned to cut around 9% of its full-time jobs and scale back the number of contracts it has within its “alternate workforce” over the coming months.
“These are not actions we take lightly – and we recognize the impact they will have on all eBayers. We have to say goodbye to people who have made so many important contributions to the eBay community and culture, and this isn’t easy,” the letter says.
Job cuts
Proposed redundancies increased in 2023
“While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business. To address this, we’re implementing organisational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world.”
eBay is the latest in a series of tech giants that have announced job cuts in recent months, including Amazon, Etsy, Spotify and Nokia.
Iannone said eBay needed to ensure it was “more nimble” and bring like-work together so that it could make decisions more quickly.
All US employees have been asked to work from home today (24 January) “to provide some space and privacy” for redundancy conversations, which will take place over Zoom.
It is not yet known whether any UK roles are affected.
“We’re committed to treating everyone with respect and empathy through this transition and providing impacted employees with support and resources,” the letter says.
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