Airbnb, Lyft, and Uber is laying-off thousands of its employees because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to a report from The Guardian, major tech firms are announcing layoffs in the coming weeks since the economic fallout from the coronavirus has arrived in Silicon Valley.
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Uber became the latest company to report layoffs on Wednesday, May 6, revealing that 3,700 employees are set to lose their jobs. The report was filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb to layoff thousands of employees
According to The Guardian, Uber has laid off 14% of its global workforce. The ride-hailing company clarified in the filing that the pandemic caused by COVID-19 had impacted its entire business, including investments in new products, corporate strategy, the ability to attract drivers, and its financial performance.
The announcement of Uber was followed by other tech companies stating that they will also lay off some of their employees during the pandemic crisis. Lyft, Uber's biggest rival, announced it would lay off 982 members of its staff and furlough another 288, last week.
Airbnb announced last week that it would layoff 25% of its staff which is expected to amount to 1,900 employees. Juul, a vaping company, said in April that it would move its headquarters to Washington DC, laying-off 800 of its staff. On the other hand, Yelp reported last month that it would lay off 1,000 workers and furlough 1,100 more.
Last March, WeWork announced that it would layoff some of its workforce, expecting 250 employees to lose their jobs by the end of May. The report clarified that big tech companies are not the only members affected in the industry. Since March 11, 42,000 employees were laid off by 375 startup companies.
However, not all tech companies are suffering the same way. Amazon made more than $33 million per hour for the past three months of 2020 because of the surge in ordering from customers locked down at home. Some 300,000 workers were hired by Instacart in less than a month since more people are ordering groceries online.
Zoom, an online video conference tool, was valued at $36 per share when it was launched in 2019. Currently, Zoom is valued at $150 per share and its user base just surpassed 300 million. Meanwhile, travel-related tech companies have been significantly affected because of global travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders.
"It's well understood now that the impact Covid-19 has had on the entire travel industry is absolutely colossal. Not only has the industry stopped, but it also will never be exactly the same again and nobody knows exactly what it is going to look like," said Carl Uminski, a tech industry analyst and co-founder of the digital consultancy Somo.
