Payments firm PayPal to lay off 2,000 employees

A smartphone with the PayPal logo is placed on a laptop in this illustration taken on July 14, 2021. REUTERS

PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) has said it is planning to cut 7 percent of its workforce, or about 2,000 employees, the latest in a list of fintech firms to be hit by the economic slowdown.

The payments firm also joins Big Tech firms and Wall Street titans, which are executing layoffs across corporate America as companies look to rein in costs to ride out the downturn.

PayPal’s move to keep a tight lid on costs comes against the backdrop of decades-high inflation hitting the purchasing power of consumers who also have to contend with the threat of a looming recession.

“While we have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost structure, and focused our resources on our core strategic priorities, we have more work to do,” said PayPal’s Chief Executive Dan Schulman in a statement on Tuesday.

Shares of the payments firm, which lost about 60 percent of their value last year, were up about 2 percent in afternoon trading.