Uber Halts Engineering Hires Due to Losing Billions

Uber is putting a stop to the hiring of software engineers across its U.S. and Canadian workforce, the company revealed to Bloomberg on Friday. Uber's autonomous vehicle and freight-shipping divisions are not affected by this halt.

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Losing billions

The announcement comes after Uber reported record second-quarter operating losses of $5.4 billion. That amount includes more than $4 billion in one-time charges for Uber's initial public offering. However, even without the IPO-related charges, Uber is still experiencing $1.2 billion in operating losses.

Before you worry it should be noted that Uber is still okay despite these losses. Uber reported having $13.7 billion in the bank at the end of the second quarter which means it can continue at its current burn rate for more than two years. 

Whether it will choose to do so is another story. The firm is likely to feel pressure from Wall Street to curb expenses.

According to Yahoo, Uber employees are worried about losing their jobs. The firm already let go of 400 marketing employees.

However, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg the firm will continue to hire and that the halt extends only to some teams.

“We are continuing to aggressively hire talent, including many engineers, all over the world,” the spokesman said. “We temporarily hit pause on some teams while we ensure we’re being both effective and efficient in staffing against our strategic priorities.”