Uber to cut 10% of global workforce in major overhaul

Uber has unveiled plans to cut its global workforce by about 10% as part of a major restructuring, which is set to result in around 3,300 corporate job losses.The boss of the US-based ride-hailing app told staff that the changes would create a “simpler and faster” business by cutting layers of management and merging teams.Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, announced the plans in a message to employees on Wednesday.He said the shake-up would reduce the size of its workforce by about 10%, which equates to around 3,300 staff, as first reported by Bloomberg.Uber, which has its global head office in San Francisco, did not specify how many roles would be impacted in each location that it has offices, including its UK office in London.Staff affected have been notified, but some countries will have their own local process to follow, according to the firm.Mr Khosrowshahi said in his message that Uber had been growing in the past five years and the business was performing well.“But that growth has also brought complexity: more layers, more co-ordination, more fragmented ownership, and in some cases structures that made sense when businesses were smaller but no longer serve us well at our current scale,” he said.“The changes we’re making today are designed to do two things: make Uber simpler and faster, and create more capacity to invest in our future.”Uber is also asking the majority of its staff that work remotely to come into an office, meaning less than around 1% of employees will be remote.Read MoreIt said it will reinforce a hybrid work policy which require three days a week in the office.Mr Khosrowshahi laid out organisational changes that Uber is making including combining operational and tech teams, and reducing the number of “micro-teams” – where one or two employees report to a single manager – by nearly 50%.The number of employees who sit more than seven layers from the chief executive has also been cut by 20%, according to the boss.“The decisions we’re making today are difficult, but they will help us build an even stronger Uber for the years ahead,” Mr Khosrowshahi said.Uber is preparing to launch self-driving taxis for the first time on UK roads after partnering with robotaxi business Wayve and being granted approval by Transport for London last month.