Uber on June 3 eliminated 23% of roles in its People and Places division — which covers human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities, and culture — with senior positions accounting for a disproportionately large share of the cuts. A company spokesperson confirmed the affected headcount falls well under 1% of Uber’s 34,000 global employees. The restructuring comes three weeks after Jill Hazelbaker was promoted to president and chief corporate affairs officer, with the People and Places organization newly added to her portfolio. In an internal note, Hazelbaker described parts of the division as having become “complex and fragmented, with overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership, and teams operating too far from the businesses and partners they support,” and said the goal is to build “a more connected, modern, operationally excellent organization.” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told staff separately that the changes are “necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the People team.”
An Uber spokesperson explicitly told Bloomberg the cuts are unrelated to AI — a pointed disclaimer as AI investment serves as the stated rationale for most of the industry’s concurrent layoff wave. The context is nonetheless layered: Uber’s engineering workforce has reached 95% monthly adoption of AI coding assistants, and after reportedly burning through its full 2026 AI budget within four months, the company has introduced per-tool spending caps of $1,500 for agentic AI software. Remote-work privileges previously extended to HR staff are also being revoked, with those employees now required in the office at least three days per week under a policy that has been in place since last June. Uber reported Q1 2026 gross bookings of $53.7 billion, up 25% year-over-year, and still has over 800 active job listings — including roles supporting the commercialization of its robotaxi services.