Zillow Group Inc. cut 300 employees from its workforce this week.
The past few months have seen numerous real estate companies reduce their employees, including Compass, Redfin, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, and Pacaso.
The latest round of Zillow layoffs comes as home sales deceleration takes hold of the market.
Zillow Layoffs
Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Zillow laid off 300 employees—or about 5% of its workforce. A spokesperson for the company said, “Zillow eliminated roles in several lines of business, including Premier Agent, the company’s core advertising service.”
The last time Zillow cut its workforce significantly was when it shut down its home-buying service Zillow Offers last November. Zillow cut around 2,000 people or a quarter of its staff at the time.
Shifting Directions
In addition to the slowing housing market, the Zillow layoffs come as the company works to shift directions to a bigger focus on tech. A spokesperson said the company is currently hiring for about 300 tech and engineering roles.
In an email statement to TechCrunch, a Zillow spokesperson said,
As part of our normal business process, we continuously evaluate and responsibly manage our resources as we create digital solutions to make it easier for people to move. 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.
A Zillow super app has been publicly spoken about for several months, as Zillow aims to create an all-in-one tool for consumers.
While we don’t know what the app will look like, we do know one thing: Zillow is constantly evolving.
This market calls for new plays from mega-companies and agents alike. Are you shifting your business to keep up?
