PayPal joins Silicon Valley's layoff wagon, announces 2,000 job cuts

Credit Card and online payment interface PayPal Holdings said on Tuesday that it will cut 7 per cent of its workforce. This numbers to about 2,000 employees. PayPal, once helmed by billionaire business magnate Elon Musk, is the latest amongst a host of fintech firms who have been hit by the economic slowdown.

The company’s layoffs announcement marks the latest round of job cuts in the tech industry, as Workday also announced plans to cut 525 jobs Tuesday. Earlier this month, Google announced plans to lay off more than 12,000 workers, Microsoft announced plans to cut 10,000 employees and Salesforce announced plans to lay off 7,000 workers.

PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman wrote in a release that the company is working to address the "challenging macroeconomic environment". 

"While we have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost structure, and focused our resources on our core strategic priorities, we have more work to do," Dan Schulman said. 

"Similar to other tech companies, PayPal is seeking to position itself financially and strategically, bracing for an economic slowdown," Moshe Katri, analyst at Wedbush was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Thomas Hayes, chairman and managing member at investment firm Great Hill Capital told Reuters that "tech over-hired during the pandemic and rationalizing staff during a soft period will help them to retain margins as conditions recover."

In November, PayPal had cut its annual revenue growth forecast in anticipation of a broader economic downturn and said it did not expect much growth in its U.S. e-commerce business in the holiday quarter.

Executives at the company said at the time that a challenging macro environment, and slowing e-commerce trends were pushing it to be prudent with its forecast.

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.