November 24, 2024
Lyft to cut 1,072 employees, or 26% of its workforce
Ride-hailing app Lyft confirmed it would lay off 1,072 employees, roughly 26% of its corporate workforce, and not hire for an additional 250 positions.

Ramin Talaie | Corbis News | Getty Images

Ride-hailing app Lyft will lay off 1,072 employees, roughly 26% of its corporate workforce, and won’t hire for an additional 250 positions, the company said in an SEC filing Thursday.

The news comes a week after a memo from new Lyft CEO David Risher confirmed that the company would trim its head count.

Lyft shares were largely flat on the news. The company has around 4,000 employees and had already implemented a 13% head count reduction in November 2022.

Risher’s tenure as CEO started earlier in April. He has emphasized a need to streamline operations and get back to “better meeting the needs of riders and drivers” in employee communications and public messaging.

Lyft co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer remain on the company’s board, having led the company through its 2019 public offering and subsequent expansion.

The company’s stock has never risen above its debut price and remains down around 8% year to date.

A focus on efficiency has been a familiar refrain from tech executives. The broader economic slowdown has hit tech companies particularly hard: More than 184,000 tech employees have lost their jobs in 2023 alone, according to data from Layoffs.fyi.

Lyft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.