Lyft lays off 17 percent of its workforce as Uber reportedly considers doing the same

Lyft is laying off nearly 1,000 workers after seeing its ridership drop off amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ride hailing company announced Wednesday it was cutting 17 percent of its staff, amounting to 982 employees, as well as instituting pay cuts for remaining workers. Lyft drivers aren't employees of the company so they aren't subject to the pay cuts or layoffs, but ridership plunges have massively cut their incomes already.

In addition to the layoffs, Lyft will furlough five percent of its staff, CEO Logan Green said Wednesday. Senior executives will take 30 percent pay cuts, vice president-level employees will take 20 percent, and other salaried employees will see their pay cut 10 percent. That likely means bad news for Lyft drivers as well, many of whom rely on driving to make ends meet or as their entire income. "If Lyft is cutting staff, it's easy to presume that platform spend is sharply down," TechCrunch noted.

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Uber was also considering laying off as much as 20 percent of its staff, The Information reported Tuesday. That would amount to as many as 5,400 of Uber's 27,000 employees, with the platform seeing ridership dropping as much as 80 percent in some areas.