Uber Technologies Inc. has initiated a hiring freeze for tech jobs in the U.S. and Canada as the ride-hailing giant works to recover from billions of dollars in losses in the recent quarter, Bloomberg News reported Aug. 9, citing a company statement.

An Uber spokesman told the news outlet that the company has put a pause on hiring software engineers and product managers, adding that its existing teams had already exceeded their hiring goals for the year.

"We are continuing to aggressively hire talent, including many engineers, all over the world… We temporarily hit pause on some teams while we ensure we're being both effective and efficient in staffing against our strategic priorities," the spokesman reportedly told Bloomberg.

According to the report, the freeze excludes workers in Uber's freight or autonomous vehicles businesses.

Yahoo! Finance earlier reported that the company has canceled on-site interviews for tech roles, telling job applicants that it has commenced a hiring freeze in engineering teams in the U.S. and Canada.

Meanwhile, it was also previously reported that Uber has laid off about 400 people in its marketing department.

Uber did not immediately respond to S&P Global Market Intelligence's request for comment.

The company's stock closed down 6.80% to $40.05 on Aug. 9 after falling as much as 9.91% to $38.71 during the day.

News of the hiring freeze comes as the ride-hailing giant posted $5.24 billion in net loss during the second quarter of 2019.