Uber cuts 10% of workforce as layoffs spread across industries

Uber said on Sept. 2 that it would cut about 10 percent of its workforce, or around 3,300 people, in a sweeping reorganization. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees the company needed to become “simpler and faster,” and that a “leaner organization will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions and more time spent building rather than coordinating”. The cuts will hit one-fifth of non-managerial staff who are seven or more rungs below Khosrowshahi, and the company will merge its delivery operations with some engineering and science teams, ask most remote staff to move to an office, and leave only 1 percent fully remote. Uber said the cuts would generate savings it intends to reinvest in growth, innovation and capabilities for the coming years, and it did not attribute the layoffs to artificial intelligence.

That cut is the latest in a series of layoffs announced since early August. On Aug. 4, the Illinois Institute of Technology said it had cut about 160 faculty and staff positions just before fall semester began. A spokesperson attributed the reduction to an effort to “ensure fiscal stability” and “continue to provide excellent education,” citing “demographic decline, research cutbacks, and severe restrictions on international students”. The college’s faculty senate had issued a no-confidence vote against the president and provost the week before, according to WBEZ Chicago, while the board reaffirmed its confidence in the leadership.

Zillow announced on Aug. 4 that it would cut just over 500 jobs as part of a restructuring to support its next phase of growth. CEO Jeremy Wacksman wrote in a company blog post that the cuts reflect “both the strides we’re making in our strategy and the reality of what is required of us to grow at scale”. Zillow reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $708 million, up 18 percent year over year, and net income of $46 million; this was the company’s second round of layoffs this year after roughly 200 positions were cut in late January.

On Aug. 5, the St. Louis Business Journal reported that Latch, now known as Door, laid off 32 percent of its workforce in a restructuring. The cuts comprise 65 positions, mostly in European contract labor support, but they also eliminate about 10 percent of the company’s U.S. workforce. Door expects the changes to save $10 million to $12 million per year.

GeekWire reported on Aug. 21 that Starbucks disclosed in a state filing on Thursday that it would eliminate 224 additional jobs tied to its Seattle headquarters. About 120 of those workers turned down offers to move to the company's new Nashville office, and the remaining 104 are part of the May restructuring, mostly in the team that designs, selects locations for, and builds Starbucks stores. The filing brings Starbucks’ total Seattle-tied layoffs this year to 537 across three notices, part of CEO Brian Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” turnaround, which aims to reduce expenses by $2 billion over two years.

Engadget reported on Aug. 26 that Meta had spent much of this year testing an AI-focused restructuring plan called Project OT that would have laid off thousands of workers. The plan envisioned AI agents overseen by smaller human teams, with some teams reducing headcount by as much as 60 percent. One reason for the reversal may have been that internal metrics showed code changes rose 220 percent while user-facing feature improvements rose only 36 percent and technical and security incidents rose 40 percent, according to Engadget. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff in July that AI agent development had not accelerated as expected, and Engadget suggested that employee backlash over tracking software and weaker-than-expected AI results may have contributed to the decision.

This chronology ends with Uber's Sept. 2 announcement, the most recent of the summer's layoff events.