Ridesharing company Lyft announced its decision to lay off 1,072 employees on Thursday, comprising 26% of its entire workforce. This move comes as the company looks to cut costs amid the challenging economic climate facing tech companies. In addition, the company is also set to put plans to fill 250 vacant positions on hold.
Lyft’s decision to reduce its workforce comes in the early stages of the tenure of new CEO David Risher, who assumed his position earlier this month. The company is expected to pay between $41 million and $47 million to dismissed employees in the form of severance pay and benefits.
This is the second major layoff by Lyft over the past six months, with the company cutting 13% of its workforce back in November. This appears to be an emerging trend among tech companies at large, with the likes of Amazon and Meta instituting broad company layoffs of their own.
Uber has been outperforming Lyft in the ridesharing market since the sector rebounded following the cooling down of the pandemic. Lyft’s shares are down about 9% this year to date.
Lyft is expected to release its earnings report for the first quarter of 2023 on May 4.