On June 3, 2026, Bloomberg reported that Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) is cutting 23% of its People division, the team that handles human resources, recruitment, talent acquisition, and employee relations. Uber did not disclose the absolute headcount affected. A company spokesperson told reporters the cut represents "well under 1%" of Uber's 34,000 employees, which puts the impacted population at roughly 340 people at the upper bound. The layoffs land roughly three weeks after Chief People Officer Nikki Krishnamurthy stepped down on May 11, 2026, and Jill Hazelbaker was elevated to President & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer with oversight of HR, safety operations, and corporate affairs.
In a note to impacted employees, Hazelbaker said the changes aim to build a "more connected, modern, operationally excellent organization." Uber stated the cuts are unrelated to artificial intelligence.
Uber is the world's largest rideshare and food delivery platform, with operations in more than 70 countries and a market capitalization of roughly $150 billion as of June 2026. Uber reported 34,000 full-time employees in its most recent 10-Q, plus a contractor workforce of approximately 9.5 million drivers and couriers on its global platform. The stock trades at roughly $71, about 30% below its 52-week high of $101.99.
The "unrelated to AI" framing is the part worth examining. In February 2026, on Steven Bartlett's The Diary of a CEO podcast, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said AI will be able to replace the work that 70 to 80% of humans can do over the next 10 years, with intellectual jobs going first and physical roles (driving, logistics, robotics) following in 15 to 20 years. HR, recruiting, and talent acquisition sit squarely inside the category he described as "intellectual jobs."
The cut also follows the playbook used by Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, who told Fortune's Workforce Innovation Summit on May 19, 2026, that he fired his entire HR team because they were "creating problems that didn't exist," and that "those problems disappeared when I let them go." Breslow replaced HR with a smaller "People Ops" team. Uber's restructuring follows the same direction of travel: consolidate People functions under a smaller team reporting up through a new corporate-affairs umbrella.