US e-commerce marketplace eBay has announced almost 1,000 job cuts - an estimated 9% of its full-time employees.  

The company is also planning to scale back the number of contracts within its alternate workforce in the first half of 2024.  

The decision comes as eBay strives to align staffing and expenses with its business growth, which has been outpaced by its overall headcount and expenses. 

The process of notifying affected employees will begin shortly, with leaders communicating the news directly via Zoom.  

eBay requested that all US employees work from home on 24 January to maintain privacy during these conversations.  

In a statement to its employees, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said: “Our strategy is the right one, but there is more we can do to ensure our success. We need to better organise our teams for speed — allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together and help us make decisions more quickly. 

"Despite facing external pressures, like the challenging macroeconomic environment, we know we can be better with the factors we control. While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business.  

“To address this, we're implementing organisational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world. 

"These are not actions we take lightly — and we recognise the impact they will have on all eBayers." 

This announcement marks the second round of job reductions at eBay within twelve months. 

In February 2023, the online marketplace disclosed plans to cut 500 employees, about 4% of its workforce, due to a slowdown in consumer spending.  

In its latest financial report, eBay posted total revenue of $2.5bn for the third quarter of fiscal 2023, marking a 5% increase on an as-reported basis from the same period in the previous fiscal year.