PayPal To Lay Off 9% of Its Global Workforce

On Tuesday, PayPal announced that it would be laying off around 2,500 jobs this year, or 9% of its staff across the globe, reports Reuters.

Many tech companies have been downsizing significantly over the past year, and the pattern continues in 2024.

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in a letter to staff, “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.” He said the decision was made to make direct cuts and get rid of open roles across the year, and workers who will be impacted are expected to be informed by the end of the week.

In the letter, Chris also said, “Specifically, across our organization, we need to drive more focus and efficiency, deploy automation, and consolidate our technology to reduce complexity and duplication.”

PayPal is not the only company that has announced layoffs recently. Google CEO Sundar Pichai started the new year with an alert that job cuts were on the way, and last week eBay announced it was laying off 1,000 workers. Additionally, Amazon said it would reduce its workforce by hundreds, and Duolingo has already laid off around 10% of its contractors as it transforms to implement more artificial intelligence.

According to Layoffs.fyi, so far in 2024, 98 tech companies have laid off over 25,000 employees. In 2023, 262,595 cuts were made by over 1,100 companies, per CNN.

The letter from Chriss was also posted on PayPal’s website after market close on Tuesday. The day ended with PayPal shares dropping by 0.13%.

Last November, Chriss said he expected to boost revenue, giving focus beyond just transaction-linked volume, and committed to trim the company by “reducing its cost base.”