PayPal to join tech firms laying off workers amid plans to slash workforce by 9%

PayPal has recently announced that it will be cutting around 9% of its workforce, a move in line with several other tech companies, such as Amazon and eBay, that have also reduced their staff in the first month of the new year.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of PayPal, Alex Chriss, has explained that the layoffs are necessary to drive the company forward with new technology, CNN Business reported.

"Specifically, across our organization, we need to drive more focus and efficiency, deploy automation, and consolidate our technology to reduce complexity and duplication," he wrote in a letter sent to staff Tuesday.

Other tech companies like eBay, Google and Amazon have also announced their plans for layoffs due to the macroeconomic environment.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai started the new year by warning of further layoffs ahead.

Last week, eBay said it is laying off 1,000 employees, or about 9% of its staff. Furthermore, Amazon is set to cut hundreds of jobs, including at Twitch.

Meanwhile, Duolingo laid off around 10% of its contract workers as it moved to rely more heavily on artificial intelligence (AI).

As of Tuesday afternoon, 98 tech companies have already laid off over 25,000 employees in 2024 alone, according to Layoffs.fyi.

Last year, over 262,595 layoffs were reported in more than 1,100 companies, according to the database.