Ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc. has announced a significant restructuring, cutting 23% of the workforce within its People and Places division.
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The department, which oversees human resources, global recruitment, workplace facilities, and corporate culture, is undergoing a sweeping reduction to eliminate administrative complexities and streamline operations.
Uber Streamlining Under New Leadership
The targeted layoffs represent one of the first major structural changes implemented by Jill Hazelbaker.
The long-time executive was recently promoted to President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, adding safety operations and the People and Places division to her expanded corporate remit.
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In an internal memo sent to the affected teams, Jill noted that as Uber expanded, parts of the internal organization became highly complex, fragmented, and weighed down by overlapping responsibilities.
The restructuring seeks to eliminate these operational bottlenecks, clarify internal ownership, and construct a more connected, modern, and operationally excellent support framework.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi echoed these sentiments in a separate corporate note, stating that the changes are necessary to maximize the overall effectiveness of the People team and unlock the company’s future potential.
Scope of the Layoffs and Return-to-Office Mandates
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While Uber did not publicly disclose the precise headcount of affected personnel, a company spokesperson confirmed that the downsizing affects “well under 1%” of Uber’s approximately 34,000 global employee base.
Crucially, the ride-share platform’s estimated 10 million independent drivers are classified separately and remain completely unaffected by the corporate cuts.
Coinciding with the downsizing, Uber is clamping down on remote work flexibility.
Uber now requires HR and recruitment staff who previously received approval for fully remote arrangements to return to physical offices.
The mandate enforces a strict three-day-a-week in-office attendance policy, aligning them with the broader corporate rules established last year.
The AI Budget Tensions
Uber explicitly stated that the human resources layoffs are not driven by artificial intelligence adoption.
However, the cuts occur amid immense internal pressure regarding AI expenditures.
The company recently confirmed that its technology division burned through its entire 2026 AI token budget in just four months due to heavy employee experimentation.
To regain fiscal control, Uber has introduced a strict $1,500 monthly cap on token spending for agentic coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor.
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About the Author
Sahiba Sharma
Contributing Writer