Lyft to ‘Significantly Reduce’ Workforce April 27 as It Restructures

Lyft will “significantly reduce” the size of its workforce next week.

The company did not specify the number of employees who will be affected, instead saying they will be notified about their employment status Thursday (April 27). All offices will be closed that day, and the notifications will be sent via email, Lyft CEO David Risher said in a Friday (April 21) note emailed to employees and posted on the company’s website.

Risher said in the note that Lyft’s purpose is to help riders get around and provide drivers with a way to work, and that to deliver on that purpose the firm must be a “faster, flatter company” in which employees are closer to riders and drivers.

“And we need to bring our costs down to deliver affordable rides, compelling earnings for drivers and profitable growth,” Risher said in the note. “We intend to use these savings to invest in competitive pricing, faster pickup times and better driver earnings. All of these require us to reduce our size and restructure how we’re organized.”

In an addendum posted with the note on the website, Lyft said that its previously issued guidance regarding first-quarter revenues, contribution margin and adjusted EBITDA is unchanged, and that it will report first-quarter results May 4.

Risher became CEO of Lyft Monday (April 17) and has been on the company’s board of directors since July 2021. In a move announced March 27, he assumed the role of CEO as Lyft’s co-founders, former CEO Logan Green and former president John Zimmer, transitioned into non-executive roles on the company’s board.

Lyft’s business has been slow to bounce back from the pandemic, the company has failed to branch out into other areas like food delivery, and observers have raised concerns about the platform’s ongoing viability as it continues to trail behind its main competitor, Uber.

The upcoming layoffs announced Friday follow two prior rounds last year.

In November, Lyft cut nearly 700 jobs, or 13% of its workforce, with the company’s co-founders saying at the time that the firm was responding to a changing economy.

Four months earlier, in July, the company laid off 60 people and said it was ending its program that let people rent its cars on its app.