9% of workforce getting boot after execs hired too many during pandemic
Tat bazaar eBay is laying off 1,000 employees, or 9 percent of the workforce, claiming that general hiring and overhead costs are outpacing the wider commercial growth of the company.
In a memo to workers via the corporate blog, eBay president and CEO Jamie Iannone claimed that the current strategy deployed at the business is the right one but "there is more we can do" – which must come as a massive consolation to those losing their livelihood.
He said eBay needs to "better organize our teams for speed" to be "more nimble, bring like-work together and help us make decisions more quickly," though he didn't lay any more meat on the bones of those words.
"The most significant and toughest of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles or an estimated 9 percent of full-time employees," said the chief exec.
"Additionally, we plan to scale back the number of contracts we have within our 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."
Iannone, made CEO in 2020, said eBay cannot control the "challenging macroeconomic environment" but can ring through changes internally to chop operating expenses.
He added: "Our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business. To address this, we're implementing organizational 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."
El Reg has rarely encountered cost-cutting programs that improved anything but the bottom line for the short term.
Staff will be notified if they're for the boot shortly, and where applicable they'll enter into a consultation process. And for that personal touch, "leaders will communicate the news directly via Zoom, and your VP or eLT member will send an email once the notifications in their group have been completed."
In the nine months ended September 30, 2023 [PDF], eBay reported revenue of $7.55 billion, up from $7.285 billion, and a net profit of $2.04 billion versus a loss of $1.9 billion. Operating expenses were up to $3.89 billion from $3.5 billion.
More than a quarter of a million people in tech lost their job last year across the globe. It was something of a pandemic reckoning following a period of mass recruitment by Big Tech to keep pace with unrelenting double-digit revenue gains.
The pace of job losses is slowing yet there was still evidence of cost cutting at Google, Twitch, Citrix, and more. ®