WeWork reportedly cut more than 8,000 jobs since last year

The executive chairman of WeWork is expecting the company to be a "profitable venture" in a year after reportedly slashing thousands of jobs since 2019.

A new report from the Financial Times details how the shared workspace company has "slashed its workforce from a high of 14,000 last year to 5,600 people," cutting more than 8,000 jobs. The company recently told employees that it has completed a restructuring process that included these cuts, according to the report.

Marcelo Claure, WeWork's executive chairman, told the Financial Times in an interview that he expects that in "a year from now, you are going to see WeWork to basically be a profitable venture," and the report notes the company is looking at having a positive cash flow a year earlier than expected.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In addition to the cuts, WeWork also "renegotiated leases and sold off assets," the report says. Claure said in the interview that during the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for WeWork's office spaces has been "through the roof" as employees working remotely "basically now come to a WeWork facility to use it one day a week, two days a week, three days a week."

The report notes this number of job reductions at WeWork hadn't previously been reported, although reports emerged last year that major layoffs were happening at the troubled company. Prior to a deal with Softbank announced last fall, WeWork was quite close to running out of money, and last year, the Financial Times reported the company lost more than $200,000 every hour in 2018.