Package delivery company UPS announced plans to eliminate about 12,000 jobs on Tuesday morning after seeing a slump in demand at home and abroad, according to multiple reports.
Officials said the cuts are aimed at aligning the company’s resources, CNBC reported. During a company call, CEO Carol Tomé said the decision will save the company $1 billion in costs, according to The Associated Press.
“We are going to fit our organization to our strategy and align our resources against what’s wildly important,” Tomé said.
The announcement came after UPS reported decreased revenue in the last three months of 2023, fueled by drops in shipping volumes across the U.S. and internationally. Domestically, the average daily volume was down by 7.4%, while it was down by 8.3% internationally, driven mostly by “softness in Europe,” according to company officials.
Analysts had estimated that UPS would see a fourth-quarter revenue of $25.31 billion, according to the AP. On Tuesday, the company reported revenues of $24.9 billion, a 7.8% decrease from the numbers seen in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“2023 was a unique and difficult year and through it all we remained focused on controlling what we could control, stayed on strategy and strengthened our foundation for future growth,” Tomé said.
The company is also grappling with higher labor costs and considering the sale of its Coyote truck brokerage business, Bloomberg News reported. It expects that in 2024, revenue will range between $92 billion and $94.5 billion.
UPS has about 500,000 employees worldwide.
With Tuesday’s announcement, the company joined several others in announcing layoffs in the new year, including eBay, Wayfair, Macy’s, Amazon, Google and Meta.
UPS is based in Sandy Springs.
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