Jack Dorsey Responds to Layoffs: The company did overhire during the pandemic, but Block remains a "high-efficiency company"

Techub News reports that Block founder Jack Dorsey responded to bond analyst Will Slaughter’s statement that “compared to AI improving efficiency, attributing Block’s layoffs to overexpansion during the pandemic is more accurate,” saying that the company was severely overstaffed during the pandemic due to treating Square and Cash App as two separate entities. In mid-2024, the company restructured into a single organization and reduced staff through layoffs and other measures.

Jack Dorsey stated that over the past several years, while handling complex businesses such as lending, banking, and BNPL, the company’s per capita gross profit has maintained around $500,000 from 2019 to 2024. Now, the company aims to increase this to over $2 million per person, roughly four times the previous efficiency. Block’s efficiency from 2019 to 2024 was stable at about $500,000. He emphasized that Block “has always been an efficient company… more efficient than most.”