PayPal Cuts More Jobs as It Tries to Turn Things Around

PayPal, one of the most well-known digital payments companies in the world, is laying off 251 workers at its headquarters in San Jose, California. This is the latest round of job cuts in a bigger plan to save money and change the way the company operates. Company leaders say the cuts are needed to help PayPal compete with rivals and invest in new technology like artificial intelligence, or AI.

PayPal's chief executive officer, Enrique Lores, is leading a multi-year plan to improve the company's performance. As part of that plan, PayPal wants to cut about 20% of its total workforce over the next two to three years. That means more than 4,500 jobs could be cut in total, saving the company around $1.5 billion.

The company has been facing some tough financial results lately. PayPal earned a net profit of $1.26 billion in the second quarter of the year, but that was down 12% compared to the same time the year before. The company's stock price has also dropped more than 15% over the past 12 months, recently trading around $55 per share.

One of PayPal's biggest problems is that fewer people are using its branded checkout service, which is the button you see that lets you pay with your PayPal account on websites. At the same time, competition from services like Apple Pay and Google Pay is growing stronger. To fight back, PayPal is spending $400 million this year to improve and expand its branded checkout service.

PayPal has also pointed to something called the 'K-shaped economy' as part of its trouble. This means that wealthier Americans are earning more money while lower-income Americans are struggling to get by. Since many of PayPal's customers are middle-income or lower-income people, when those customers spend less, PayPal's platform sees less activity too.

Earlier this year, PayPal replaced its previous chief executive. The company said that leader's pace of change over two years was not fast enough to meet the board's expectations. The new leadership team is now working to speed up improvements across the business.

Even with its challenges, PayPal still has some strengths. The company owns Venmo, a payments app that is very popular with young people. PayPal also offers a 'Buy Now, Pay Later' service, which lets shoppers spread out payments for items over time instead of paying all at once.

There was also news earlier this year that Stripe, a financial services company, and an investment firm called Advent International were interested in buying PayPal for more than $50 billion. However, reports say those two companies have since walked away from that idea.

PayPal is not alone in making job cuts. Many big tech companies have announced layoffs this year, including Apple, Meta, Snap, Oracle, and Amazon. A lot of these companies say they are cutting jobs because AI tools can now do some of the work that humans used to do. From January to May of this year, U.S. tech companies announced more than 123,000 job cuts — a 66% jump compared to the same period in 2025, according to a report from a firm that tracks these trends.