Uber Lays Off 200-250 Employees in India as Part of Global Restructuring
Globally, Uber is cutting around 3,300 corporate jobs, equivalent to roughly 10% of its workforce.
Ride-hailing major Uber has laid off around 200-250 employees in India as part of a global restructuring that will reduce the company’s workforce by about 10%, according to people familiar with the matter. Uber has confirmed that its India operations have been affected but has not publicly disclosed the exact number of roles being eliminated.
The India layoffs are part of a broader restructuring announced by Uber on September 2, under which the company plans to eliminate around 3,300 corporate positions globally. The move is aimed at simplifying Uber’s organisational structure, reducing management layers and redirecting resources towards its major growth opportunities.
In India, the cuts have affected employees across functions and offices, including technology and operations, according to reports. The affected roles include both individual contributors and managerial positions. Employees in Uber’s People and Earners organisations have also been impacted, with some engineers working on the company’s internal recruitment platform among those affected.
Layoff communications began reaching employees in India on September 2. The exact scale of the India workforce reduction could change as the restructuring progresses, with reports indicating that further notifications may follow.
Globally, Uber is cutting around 3,300 corporate jobs, equivalent to roughly 10% of its workforce. The company described the move as an organisational restructuring rather than a response to weak business performance.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company’s growth over the past five years had resulted in additional management layers, greater coordination requirements and fragmented ownership. The restructuring is intended to create what the company described as a simpler and faster organisation.
The changes will reduce Uber’s number of managers by about 20%, although not all of the reduction will come through layoffs. Some managers will move into individual-contributor roles. The company is also consolidating teams and reducing the number of very small teams, with the number of teams consisting of only one or two employees expected to fall by nearly half.
Uber is also changing its approach to workplace location. The company plans to reduce fully remote positions to less than 1% of its workforce, while maintaining its existing expectation that most employees work from an office at least three days a week.
As part of the restructuring, Uber is combining its Core Services Engineering and Science organisations and consolidating delivery operations across restaurants, retail and direct delivery under a simpler structure. The company said the changes are intended to free up capacity and resources for areas it considers its biggest opportunities.
Those priorities include mobility, delivery and autonomous vehicles. Uber has increasingly been positioning autonomous mobility as an important part of its long-term strategy as robotaxi technology develops and competition increases from companies working on self-driving transportation. Reuters reported that the restructuring is also intended to help Uber redirect resources towards these future growth areas.
The latest restructuring should be distinguished from Uber’s earlier workforce reductions linked specifically to artificial intelligence. In July, the company confirmed a reduction of around 10% of its customer-service workforce as it expanded the use of AI and automation across its customer operations. The current 3,300-job reduction, however, has been presented primarily as an organisational restructuring involving management layers, team structures and resource allocation.
Uber’s India operations include major technology and business teams, making the country an important global hub for the company. Despite the workforce reduction, the company has said its commitment to India remains unchanged.
The India layoffs also come at a time when Uber is continuing to expand its operations and technology presence in the country. Bengaluru and Hyderabad remain important locations for its technology and business teams.
The restructuring is Uber’s largest workforce reduction since the Covid-19 pandemic. It comes after several years of expansion in which the company has grown its mobility and delivery businesses while also increasing its focus on autonomous transportation and other technology-driven opportunities.