Uber is cutting approximately 3,300 corporate jobs in its largest workforce reduction since the COVID-19 pandemic. The ride-hailing giant is also sharply limiting remote-work options, with fewer than 1% of employees expected to remain fully remote under the new policy.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the restructuring in a message to employees on September 2. He explained that Uber’s rapid expansion over the past five years had created excessive management layers, fragmented responsibilities, and more coordination than the company now requires. The restructuring aims to make the business “simpler and faster” while freeing up resources for growth and innovation.
Management Layers to Shrink
Khosrowshahi told staff that Uber is moving toward a model where employees are grouped around a small number of designated hubs. The company’s two largest offices in New York and San Francisco will house global teams, with additional regional, country, and tech hubs for other functions. Under the new approach, fully remote roles will be capped at approximately 1% of the company’s global headcount. This marks a major reversal from the flexible, work-from-anywhere culture Uber had built since the pandemic began.
The restructuring also brings a major change for employees working from home. Uber plans to ask the vast majority of its remote employees to relocate closer to company offices.
Future Roadmap
Uber will continue to enforce its existing hybrid policy, which requires employees to work from an office at least three days a week. The company also plans to concentrate teams in key hubs, including San Francisco and New York.
These latest layoffs are the biggest at Uber since May 2020, when the firm laid off 6,700 employees amid the pandemic. This time, Uber is positioning the layoffs as organizational restructuring meant to simplify operations and redirect resources toward growth, innovation, and its expanding autonomous-vehicle strategy.