NextFin News - Uber Technologies Inc. has eliminated 23% of its "People" division, a sweeping reduction that coincides with a leadership transition at the ride-hailing giant. The cuts, which primarily target human resources and recruiting functions, were announced internally on Wednesday as the company’s new president, whose appointment was finalized earlier this year, begins a broader effort to streamline corporate overhead and pivot toward automated talent management.
The workforce reduction affects approximately 450 employees within the People department, according to internal memos reviewed by Bloomberg. This move follows a period of aggressive hiring in 2025 and signals a sharp reversal in Uber’s approach to internal growth. While the company has maintained a steady pace of expansion in its core mobility and delivery sectors, the administrative side of the business is now being subjected to the same "lean" philosophy that U.S. President Trump’s administration has championed for the broader American economy since taking office in January 2025.
The timing of the layoffs is inextricably linked to the arrival of the new president of Uber, who has been tasked by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi with modernizing the company’s internal infrastructure. According to Natalie Lung (Bloomberg), the restructuring is designed to replace traditional HR workflows with AI-driven systems, a trend that has become a hallmark of the 2026 tech landscape. Lung, a veteran technology reporter known for her focus on corporate governance and labor shifts, has long maintained that Silicon Valley’s "efficiency era" would eventually move beyond engineering teams and into the back-office functions of major platforms.
This perspective, while gaining traction, is not yet a universal consensus among Wall Street analysts. Some institutional researchers argue that such deep cuts to human resources could jeopardize Uber’s ability to manage its vast, decentralized workforce of drivers and couriers. However, the current strategy reflects a calculated bet that the company can maintain operational stability with a significantly smaller administrative footprint. The risk remains that a hollowed-out HR department may struggle to navigate the complex labor regulations that continue to challenge the gig economy model in both domestic and international markets.
The broader context of these layoffs is a cooling U.S. labor market. Data from the first half of 2026 shows that while the transportation sector remains robust, corporate-level job cuts have spiked as companies prioritize profitability over headcount growth. Uber’s decision to slash nearly a quarter of its People division suggests that the company is no longer in a "growth at all costs" phase, but is instead focused on protecting its margins in an environment where capital remains expensive and investor patience is thin.
Uber’s stock reacted with modest gains following the news, as investors typically reward cost-cutting measures that promise improved bottom-line performance. The company has not yet commented on whether further divisions will face similar scrutiny, but the scale of the cuts in the People department serves as a clear indicator of the new leadership's priorities. The success of this transition will depend on whether the remaining staff and new automated systems can effectively manage the needs of a global workforce that still numbers in the tens of thousands.
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