Lyft lays off almost 1,000 staffers as Uber weighs big layoffs

Lyft is laying of 982 people, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. That represents 17 percent of the company's official workforce (the company considers its thousands of drivers to be independent contractors). An additional 288 employees will be furloughed, Lyft said. Most of the remaining salaried employees will take 10 percent pay cuts, while executives will face pay cuts of 20 to 30 percent. The cuts reflect the dire state of Lyft's business during the coronavirus lockdown. Demand for on-demand passenger rides has plummeted. Lyft didn't disclose booking figures in its filing, but The Information's Amir Efrati reported last week that Uber's global bookings for ride hailing were down 80 percent. Lyft has presumably suffered similarly large losses. At least Uber has had its well-established and fast-growing Uber Eats service to fall back on. Demand for deliveries has soared at the same time that demand for rides plunged. Uber and Lyft have both expanded their delivery options in recent weeks. Lyft announced a new delivery service called Essential Deliveries last week. Uber has two new services. Uber Direct offers deliveries from non-restaurant retailers, while Uber Connect is a courier service allowing customers to send packages to one another. But strong demand for deliveries has apparently not been sufficient to offset plunging ride revenues. Uber hasn't officially announced job cuts, but Efrati reported Tuesday that Uber was considering layoffs that could hit as much as 20 percent of its 27,000-person workforce.