Could Hiring Slowdown, Layoffs Be On The Horizon At eBay?

UPDATE 8-17-22

The ticker is still mysteriously "stuck" at 612, but search all jobs shows open positions down to 574.

UPDATE 8-11-22

The ticker graphic on the main eBay Careers page is still there, but appears to be a bit behind in updating.

Today it's showing a total of 612 open positions, but clicking through to "get started" shows only 583. Either way it appears to still be on a downward trend from the 696 observed on July 5.

UPDATE 7-26-22

Open job positions at eBay continue to taper off, down to 625 today vs 696 3 weeks ago.

UPDATE 7-15-22

An eBay spokesperson responded:

Our team is doing some web maintenance and the ticker has been temporarily removed while we make updates to our careers page. In the meantime, you can reference our total number of current job openings at https://jobs.ebayinc.com/search-jobs

What kind of maintenance could have been needed that would require completely removing only a single graphic from the page and why would it take over a week to complete?

It must not have been a very difficult problem to solve - coincidentally the ticker was restored just a few short hours after that response was sent and it appears to be accurately reflecting the drop in openings observed during the time it was "down for maintenance."

I have a sneaking suspicion there might still be more to the story - stay tuned! 🕵️‍♀️

UPDATE 7-15-22

I've confirmed the jobs ticker on the eBay careers page was removed sometime between July 7th-14th.

It's not clear what the reason for removal is at this point, but it does appear to have been intentional. I've reached out to eBay for comment and will update if they provide an explanation.

Luckily, unsuckEBAY has been tracking the numbers manually to provide a snapshot of where things stand since the graphic was removed.

7-14-22

As the pandemic fueled ecommerce boom wanes and Q2 earnings reports are approaching, many tech companies are slowing hiring, rescinding offers and/or announcing layoffs.

eBay is in a particularly tough spot, with years of executive mis-execution and lagging legacy tech still weighing heavily on the organization.

Despite trying to paint a rosy picture in recent earnings calls, CEO Jamie Iannone and his current leadership team have been unable to hold onto the pandemic era growth or, in fact, even pre-pandemic growth, as active buyers on the platform have fallen all the way back to early 2018 levels.

There's also been troubling turnover in key executive roles at the company in the first half of this year with Chief Product Officer Pete Thompson leaving in March, VP Buyer Experience Product & Engineering Mohan Patt leaving in April (taking 16 years of institutional eBay product knowledge with him to Meta/Facebook), VP Buyer Experience Bradford Shellhammer jumping ship to Etsy-owned Reverb in June, and Head of Europe Rob Hattrell set to leave this month.

Pete Thompson was replaced by an outside hire, Eddie Garcia who had previously been at Sam's Club and Facebook.

However, replacements for Patt and Shellhammer have not been named and eBay intends to simply expand current SVP GM Americas Jordan Sweetnam's role to absorb Rob Hattrell's position rather than recruiting to fill the gap.

Does the seeming reluctance to bring in replacements at the top possibly signal deeper problems that don't bode well for job prospects at the company?

Another interesting note - the "ticker" on eBay's jobs page that usually shows the number of current job openings has disappeared very recently. It was still there on July 5th, but is no longer showing on the page, at least as of today.

One very informal and not at all scientific Twitter poll didn't reveal much confidence in the job outlook at eBay either. 😉

Obviously I can't give anyone career advice, but just a general note for all the workers of the world...it never hurts to make sure those LinkedIn profiles and resumes are updated and ready, just in case. 🤞

What do you think? Will eBay be forced to announce a hiring freeze or employee layoffs before end of year? Let us know in the comments below!