PayPal to lay off 7% of its workforce, fire 2,000 employees

US-based fintech PayPal said on Tuesday it is planning to cut 7% of its workforce, or about 2,000 employees.

The payments firm also joins Big Tech companies which are laying off employees in a bid to rein in costs.

PayPal's move to cut staff - a move to reduce costs- comes against the backdrop of decades-high inflation hitting the purchasing power of consumers who also have to contend with the threat of a looming recession.


"While we have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost structure, and focused our resources on our core strategic priorities, we have more work to do," said PayPal's Chief Executive Dan Schulman in a statement.

Shares of the payments firm, which lost about 60% of their value last year, were up about 2% in afternoon trading.

In November, PayPal had cut its annual revenue growth forecast in anticipation of a broader economic downturn and said it did not expect much growth in its US e-commerce business in the holiday quarter.

Executives at the company said at the time that a challenging macro environment, and slowing e-commerce trends were pushing it to be prudent with its forecast.

Across the sector thousands of jobs are being cut to correct the over-hiring of the Covid period, and brace for, what experts call, a period of slower growth for the sector.

The layoff wave has swept not only startups and mid-sized firms, but also big tech companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet, among others.

So far, 219 tech companies have laid off 68,149 employees in 2023, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi.