Zillow has laid off another 300 members of staff and put 200,000 square feet of office space up for sublease in the biggest round of job losses since the portal announced 2000 job cuts as part of its iBuying exit in November 2021.
The cuts represent 5% of the portal's total workforce, with the layoffs impacting Zillow Offer advisors, PA sales and back-end staff at Zillow Home Loans and Zillow Closing Services. The real estate up for lease includes part of Zillow's Seattle headquarters.
Interestingly, Zillow continues to hire, with the portal advertising up to 300 tech and engineering roles, nearly exactly the same amount as the job losses that were announced on Tuesday.
Chrissy Roebuck, a Zillow spokesperson, said in an emailed statement:
"This week, we have made the difficult — but necessary — decision to eliminate a small number of roles and will shift those resources to key growth areas around our housing super-app. We’re still hiring in key technology-related roles across the company."
Zillow's YTD share price is now half of what it is was in October 2021, with share value falling from $61 to $30 in the previous 12 months.
Job cuts in the US real estate sector are a trending topic at the moment. Compass announced a round of layoffs in September, proptech startup Roofstock cut 20% of its workforce today, and real estate technology company Side cut an undisclosed number of jobs last week.