Grubhub announces job cuts of 15 percent of its workforce
This year has seen a wave of layoffs in the technology industry, and GrubHub is the latest to join the trend. The company’s CEO, Howard Migdal, revealed that approximately 400 employees, which is equivalent to 15 percent of its corporate workforce, will be laid off. The move is aimed at keeping Grubhub “competitive” in the market.
He said, “Over the past few months, I met with Grubhub teams to learn about the business from the ground up; I spoke with restaurants and diners to understand their needs — and challenges — when using our service.” Affected employees will be “notified in the next few hours.” Migdal continues to understand that this will be a difficult time for all employees. For those who keep their jobs, he insists more details about “our shared future” will emerge in the coming days.
In March of this year, Grubhub’s CEO at the time, Adam DeWitt, announced that he would step down in early May due to mounting financial pressure. With Migdal as the new CEO, it’s not terribly surprising that his first move would be to try to reduce operating costs due to continued financial pressure.
Grubhub isn’t the first, and likely won’t be the last, delivery service to start laying off workers. Late last year, DoorDash announced it was laying off nearly 1,300 employees due to “operating expenses.” Company CEO Tony Xu said DoorDash increased hiring during the pandemic and that operating expenses continue to outpace sales.
The big difference between DoorDash and Grubhub is that the former offered layoffs 13 weeks of compensation plus four weeks of severance pay. Grubhub’s announcement today did not mention any form of compensation or severance pay for those laid off.
