(London) Online retailer eBay will cut some 1,000 jobs, or around 9% of its full-time workforce, saying its number of employees and costs have outpaced the company’s growth in an economy slowing down.
President and CEO Jamie Iannone said in a message to employees Tuesday that the company would also reduce the number of “contracts we have within our alternative workforce over the coming months.”
“These changes are difficult, but I am confident that by working together we will become stronger than ever,” added Mr. Iannone.
eBay, headquartered in San Jose, California, is the latest technology company to make a round of layoffs after rapidly ramping up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic as people spent more money online.
Today, several companies, from Google to Amazon, have made painful job cuts to cut costs and improve their bottom lines.
This month, Google said it was laying off hundreds of employees working across its hardware, voice support and engineering teams, while TikTok announced it was laying off dozens of employees in advertising and sales .
The video game developer Riot Games, behind the popular “League of Legends”, has reduced its workforce by 11%.
For its part, Amazon announced this month that it was cutting several hundred jobs at its Prime Video and MGM Studios units.
The online retail giant owns two other companies that announced major layoffs in January: Audible, the online audiobook and podcast service, which is cutting about 5% of its workforce, and the video platform on demand Twitch, which eliminates more than 500 jobs.
Other tech companies, including Spotify, Microsoft, Meta and IBM, have also recently cut jobs.
They are facing a slowdown in their economies following rapid interest rate hikes initiated by central banks around the world to combat soaring inflation.
The eBay boss highlighted these concerns about the need to reduce its workforce: “Despite external pressures, such as the difficult macroeconomic environment, we know that we can be better with the factors we control,” assured Mr. Iannone.
The company also faced internal issues that hurt its business. Online retailer to pay $3 million fine to settle U.S. criminal charges over harassment campaign by employees who sent live spiders, cockroaches and other disturbing objects to couple’s home of Massachusetts, according to court documents.
The Justice Department has charged eBay with criminal harassment, witness tampering and obstruction of justice more than three years after the employees were prosecuted in a sweeping scheme to intimidate a couple who produced an online newsletter called EcommerceBytes, which had bothered eBay executives with its media coverage.