CEO Of eBay Confirms 1,000 Job Losses

E-commerce company eBay has confirmed that a sizeable number of its workforce will soon be handed their P45s.

In a corporate blog post from Jamie Iannone, President and CEO of eBay, which had been sent to eBay’s internal workforce on Tuesday, 23 January 2024, staff was notified of changes “to better organise our teams for speed” in order “to better position eBay for long-term, sustainable growth.”

There was other bad news last week, when eBay had paid a $3 million (£2.3m) fine over charges its employees harassed a Massachusetts couple critical of the firm.

Job losses

Executives at eBay had allegedly sent live spiders and cockroaches to Ina and David Steiner, who published a newsletter called EcommerceBytes that employees disliked.

The couple was left “emotionally, psychologically, and physically” terrorised by the employees’ actions, according to court filings.

And now the firm has confirmed that major changes are coming in the next few months for a notable potion of the workforce, as eBay changes its strategy and organisation.

“The most significant and toughest of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles or an estimated 9 percent of full-time employees,” wrote Iannone. “Additionally, we plan to scale back the number of contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months.”

“These are not actions we take lightly – and we recognize the impact they will have on all eBayers,” wrote the CEO. “We have to say goodbye to people who have made so many important contributions to the eBay community and culture, and this isn’t easy.”

Iannone noted that the job cuts are necessary as while eBay is “making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business. Overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business.”

Offices cleared

Iannone said that the firm will begin notifying those employees whose roles have been eliminated and entering into a consultation process in areas where required.

All US staff were requested to work from home on Wednesday 24 January, “to provide some space and privacy for these conversations.”

“These changes are difficult, but I’m confident that by working together we will become stronger than ever,” wrote Iannone. “In the months ahead, you will see a more focused, agile, and responsive eBay – one that is better positioned to advance our purpose of creating economic opportunity for all.”

The job losses at eBay come after Amazon and Google also recently announced cuts to their respective workforces.

SAP this week also said it was “restructuring” 8,000 jobs.