Silicon Valley businesses are bleeding jobs because of COVID-19. Uber has announced nearly 7,000 layoffs since the global pandemic began.
“It’s super brutal. The whole point of Uber is taking people from one place to another, and that’s the exact opposite of what we’re being told to do right now,” says Mike Isaac, a New York Times tech reporter and author of the book “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.”
Lyft slashed just shy of 1,000 jobs. Airbnb cut nearly 2,000 positions.
“They [Airbnb] were ready to go public in 2021. They were spending $500 million on advertising at the Olympics, and now their entire business is in a total tailspin,” says Isaac.
But some tech businesses like Amazon, Zoom, Slack and Facebook (which just launched Facebook Shops) are seeing an increase in demand.
Isaac says things centering around remote work will be the future in this new pandemic era.