PayPal Holdings said Tuesday it’s planning to chop 7% of its workforce, or about 2,000 employees, the newest fintech firm in charge mass layoffs on the economic slowdown.
The payments firm also joins Big Tech firms and Wall Street titans, that are executing layoffs across corporate America as corporations look to rein in costs to ride out the downturn.
PayPal’s move to maintain a good lid on costs comes against the backdrop of decades-high inflation hitting the purchasing power of consumers who also should contend with the specter of a looming recession.
“While we now have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost structure, and focused our resources on our core strategic priorities, we now 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 12 months, closed up 2.3% at $81.49.
“Much like other tech corporations, PayPal is searching for to position itself financially and strategically, bracing for an economic slowdown,” said Moshe Katri, analyst at Wedbush.
Thomas Hayes, chairman and managing member at investment firm Great Hill Capital told Reuters that “tech over-hired through the pandemic and rationalizing staff during a soft period will help them to retain margins as conditions get better.”
In November, PayPal had cut its annual revenue growth forecast in anticipation of a broader economic downturn and said it didn’t expect much growth in its US e-commerce business in the vacation quarter.
Executives at the corporate said on the time that a difficult macro environment, and slowing e-commerce trends were pushing it to be prudent with its forecast.