ZipRecruiter: Cut 39% of Staff in March 2020

Category: hiring and labor marketplaces
Pandemic-layoff role: Deepest-cut ranking company
Last updated: 2026-09-29

Pandemic-role map

Reader shorthand: online jobs marketplace that cut about four in ten of its own staff when employers stopped hiring, and reported $86.0 million of net income that year after losses in 2018 and 2019.
What ZipRecruiter did for customers: sold job-posting subscriptions and pay-per-performance advertising to employers and matched them with job seekers.
What broke in the pandemic: employers froze hiring in March 2020, and the number of paying employers fell.
Relief role: not a lender or relief intermediary; no ZipRecruiter borrower appears in SBA's PPP loan data.

Before the pandemic

ZipRecruiter, based in Santa Monica, California, earned $429.6 million of revenue in 2019 and lost $6.3 million. It was still private. Its customers were employers of every size, and chief executive Ian Siegel described them this way at the start of the downturn: "Our customer base looks like the U.S. economy by size, geography and industry."

What the pandemic changed

In late March 2020 ZipRecruiter cut 492 employees, about 49 of them furloughed with health benefits only, dot.LA reported on March 29, citing people familiar with the cuts. The outlet put the reduction at 39% of staff. Departing workers received one month's severance, three months of health coverage and a two-year extension to exercise their equity. The company also cut its marketing budget and reduced monthly expenses by $10 million. Siegel took a 50% salary cut, as did his three co-founders. "The U.S. economy is hurting and we regretfully have to do what is necessary to make sure we are there for the great American comeback story to come," he told the outlet.

The company's 2021 registration statement books one-time costs of the reduction in force in three expense lines: $3.7 million in sales and marketing, $1.0 million of severance in research and development and $1.0 million in general and administrative expense, $5.7 million in all.

The 2020 numbers

Revenue fell only 3%, to $418.1 million. Paying employers fell from 102,541 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 89,636 a year later, but revenue per paying employer rose from $1,098 to $1,276. Subscription revenue fell $27.1 million, partly offset by growth in performance-based revenue. ZipRecruiter reported net income of $86.0 million for 2020 and adjusted EBITDA of $80.1 million. It had lost money in 2018 and 2019.

After the first shock

ZipRecruiter went public through a direct listing in May 2021. Revenue then climbed: $741.1 million in 2021 and $904.6 million in 2022, with net income of $61.5 million in 2022. The growth did not last. Revenue fell to $645.7 million in 2023, $474.0 million in 2024 and $449.0 million in 2025, and the company reported net losses of $12.9 million in 2024 and $33.0 million in 2025. Its 2025 annual report says hiring stayed lower because "those currently employed" kept leaving their jobs "at a low rate," and that employers spent less on its marketplace.

Where the company is now

ZipRecruiter is a public company, NYSE: ZIP. Ian Siegel signed its 2025 annual report as chief executive in February 2026. Its 2025 revenue was about $11 million above what it earned in 2020, the year of the layoff.

ZipRecruiter Profile: Pandemic Layoffs, Business Model, and Current Status