Jack Dorsey responds to "Block layoffs due to mismanagement": Structural errors led to overhiring and have been corrected in 2024, with a target gross profit per person exceeding $2 million.

On February 27, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey responded to claims that “the number of Block employees increased from 3,900 in December 2019 to 12,500 in December 2022, and now the layoffs are even less than half of the initial ‘crazy hiring’.” He stated, “Yes, we did overhire during the pandemic because I mistakenly built two separate company structures (Square and Cash App) instead of integrating them into a unified structure. We corrected this issue in mid-2024. But this overlooks the complexities we faced during that period—including launching lending, banking services, and ‘buy now, pay later’ operations, which brought operational and compliance challenges. Our current goal is to achieve over $2 million in gross profit per employee, which is four times the pre-pandemic efficiency. From 2019 to 2024, our per capita gross profit has remained around $500,000. We have been, and still are, running an efficient company with performance better than most peers.”

Earlier reports indicated that Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin payment company Block is cutting 4,000 employees, nearly half of its workforce. The company is betting on artificial intelligence to change future labor productivity. Following the layoffs, Block’s stock price surged 22% in after-hours trading.