Online payment firm PayPal is slashing its global workforce by approximately 7 percent this year—amounting to roughly 2,500 job losses—as it becomes the latest tech company to announce layoffs.
Alex Chriss, president and CEO of the firm, announced the cuts in a message first shared internally with employees on Jan. 30.
The same message was published on PayPal’s official website shortly after the market closed.
Mr. Chriss told employees that the “difficult” job cuts are part of PayPal’s efforts to “build a growth organization” and unlock its “true potential.”
The cuts will “right size” the tech giant while simultaneously allowing it to “move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth,” he said.
PayPal—which employed around 29,900 people at the end of 2022, according to the company—will eliminate both vacant positions and open roles as part of the layoffs, he said.
“During the last few months, I have spent as much time as possible with as many of you as possible to learn about our company’s great strengths, as well as where we need to move faster, where we need to change, and what we need to do to instill a culture of innovation that returns our company to the true position of strength it deserves,” Mr. Chriss said.
“While I have been encouraged by the innovation our team is delivering, we must execute faster and ensure we are focused on solving our customers’ most critical needs and problems,” he said.
Some Jobs to Be Automated
Mr. Chriss noted that some of the job roles within PayPal will also be automated as part of cost-cutting efforts in 2024, which he called the “year of change.”Last week, the company said it planned to push a string of new artificial intelligence-driven products, including AI-powered recommendations aimed at helping merchants reach new customers based on their prior shopping history and AI-powered insights that will optimize the checkout experience for consumers.
In his message to employees, Mr. Chriss said that PayPal needs to “drive more focus and efficiency, deploy automation, and consolidate our technology to reduce complexity and duplication.
“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,” he said.
Employees set to lose their jobs at PayPal will be notified by the end of the week, Mr. Chriss said.
“These decisions were not easy to make, and we are undertaking these actions with tremendous care and consideration,” he said.
Employees set to lose their jobs will go through a consultation process, the CEO noted.
“True to our values, we will support our employees’ transitions with the utmost respect, support, and compassion,” he concluded.
Paypal’s shares were down 0.13 percent after the announcement, which came exactly a year after the tech giant said it was then laying off 7 percent of its workforce—around 2,000 employees—amid an economic slowdown.
Tech Layoffs Continue
The latest layoffs come as a string of tech firms have already announced cuts to their global workforce this year, including e-commerce giant eBay, which plans to slash 1,000 full-time employees due to “external pressures” and a challenging macroeconomic environment.
Amazon also said earlier this month it would let go of hundreds of its Prime Video employees as well as staff of its subsidiary MGM Studios and its live-streaming platform Twitch as part of cost-cutting efforts.
Elsewhere, Google is cutting thousands of jobs, including at YouTube, as part of what it says are “responsible investing” efforts, while Microsoft confirmed last week that it is laying off 1,900 employees, roughly one year after the company cut 10,000 from its workforce
A total of 103 tech companies have laid off 28,963 employees so far in 2024, according to data from layoffs.
PayPal’s fourth-quarter earnings report will be released next week.
Reuters contributed to this report.