Lyft Cuts 683 Jobs to Stay Afloat During Inflation, Recession

Lyft announced Thursday it will lay off over 680 of its employees, which equates to about 13 percent of its entire workforce, all in the name of cutting costs to deal with a weakening economy and potential upcoming recession, Reuters reports.

“The announced reduction in force is a proactive step as part of the company’s annual planning to ensure the company is set up to accelerate execution and deliver strong business results in Q4 of 2022 and in 2023,” Lyft said in a statement.

Keep in mind this move comes less than a month after Lyft announced it would be raising service fees for customers in order to make up for higher insurance costs.

It’s important to note that the 680 employees being fired are not drivers, as they are explicitly counted as contractors. Lyft has spent millions to keep it that way. This latest group of impacted workers are corporate.

The job cuts comes just months after the ride-sharing company cut 60 jobs, and implemented a hiring freeze at the beginning of 2022. This latest move is supposed to result in a monetary change between $27 and 32 million in the fourth quarter of this year. Lyft joins companies like Uber, in cutting costs and employees to try and stay afloat with record-high inflation.