PayPal has announced that it will be chopping off 9 percent of its workforce from the beginning of the coming week, meaning that thousands of its employees globally will be losing their jobs.
While making the announcement on Tuesday, January 30, Paypal CEO Alex Chris stated that there was need to push forward on technology noting that the company needs to push more focus on automation.
Further, he explained in the decision had been made after an internal review where he spent time with as many of the employees to learn about the company’s greatest strengths.
“Today, I am writing to share the difficult news that we will be reducing our global workforce by approximately 9% through both direct reductions and the elimination of open roles.
“We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth.
At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth,” stated the CEO.
The financial payments giant will be laying off more than 2,000 employees, almost one year after a similar exercise.
Also Read: Google Announces New Year Mass Layoffs
Paypal CEO Explains Reason for the Move
The CEO told his team that affected persons will be notified before the end of the week adding that the company was undertaking the exercise with care and consideration.
Additionally, he explained that the move will instill a culture on innovation and return the company to the true position of strength it deserves.
“If your role is included in this workforce reduction, you will be notified between today and the end of the week. These decisions were not easy to make, and we are undertaking these actions with tremendous care and consideration.
“All decisions are subject to consultation, where required by law. True to our values, we will support our employees’ transitions with the utmost respect, support, and compassion,” noted Alex.
Across the organization, the CEO indicated that there was need to drive more focus and efficiency, deploy automation, and consolidate technology to reduce complexity and duplication.
Also Read: Layoffs Persist as Private Companies Make Huge Losses – Report
This, he noted, will ensure the tech giant executes faster and focuses on solving their customer’s critical needs and problems.
“We have started on that journey, but there is a lot of work to do – and 2024 marks a year of change, including some difficult but necessary decisions to get us to where we need to go,” added the memo to the employees.
Layoffs in Tech Companies
The announced adds to the many others by tech giants that have seen layoffs in 2023. This January, Google, Discord, eBay, Unity Software and Twitch have also announced cuts of local employees.
PayPal counts Venmo and Xoom among its subsidiaries and had 29,900 total employees at the end of 2022.
The financial payments giant laid off about 2,000 workers on January 31, 2023, meaning the 9% cut announced on Tuesday will likely eliminate around 2,500 jobs.