Airbnb cuts recruiting staff by 30% even as it selectively hires
AIRBNB laid off 30 per cent of its recruiting staff this week, even as it plans to expand overall headcount this year.
The cuts affected 0.4 per cent of the San Francisco-based company’s total workforce of 6,800, a spokesperson said, noting that it’s not an indication of more widespread layoffs.
Airbnb has been one of the few tech firms to avoid mass layoffs, while many peers have cut their growth expectations amid higher interest rates and a sector-wide slowdown. Travel companies, meanwhile, have largely remained resilient as demand for trips boomed after the pandemic.
Airbnb made painful choices around layoffs and restructuring in the early days of Covid-19, cutting about 25 per cent of staff. Chief executive Brian Chesky said late last year that the state of the economy won’t affect how the business is run. Chief financial officer Dave Stephenson said on the company’s latest earnings call that it still sees room to hire.
“We’re going to continue to grow, but we’re going to grow modestly,” Stephenson said last month. He said he expects headcount growth of 2 per cent to 4 per cent this year, compared with 11 per cent growth in last year.
The spokesperson said the company had made a “difficult decision to reorganise and reduce the size of our recruiting team to reflect our hiring projections”.
Financially, the company is doing better than ever. Airbnb reported its first profitable year in 2022, reporting net income of US$1.9 billion. BLOOMBERG
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