The CEO and Co-founder of Airbnb Mr. Brian Chesky has announced that his company is laying off 25 percent of its workforce, about 1,900 employees as a way of cutting down costs due to Covid-19.
Airbnb has about 7,500 employees but the coming of Covid-19 has hit hard on the travel and hotel industry, the main revenue earner for the company.
The 1,900 Airbnb employees will leave with a 14-week pay, an Apple laptop, a health insurance for the rest of 2020 and most importantly, as shareholders.
“We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime and as it begun to unfold, global travel came to a standstill,” he said.
Airbnb says it projects it’s revenue for the year 2020 to be less than half of what was registered in the year 2019. In response, the company raised 2 billion dollars from capital as well drastic cutting on costs.
“Am letting you go because I don’t know how the future will be. I don’t know exactly when travel will return. When travel does return, it will be different,” he added in a touching letter to his employees.
According to Airbnb, Covid-19 has changed the travel industry and that once the pandemic is over, the world will never be the same in terms of people moving around the world.
“People will want options that are closer to home, safer and affordable,” he said.
Airbnb now joins a list of other international corporations that have resorted to letting go of their staff as a way of cutting down on costs and navigating through the pandemic.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that at least 25 million people will be left jobless as a result of Covid-19. Almost all airlines around the world have grounded their operations with few converting their passenger planes into cargo ones.
More jobs are expected to be lost as the year progresses.