WeWork said on Thursday that it was laying off 2,400 employees around the world, weeks after huge losses at the co-working company brought it close to financial collapse.

The layoffs are equivalent to nearly 20 percent of the 12,500 employees WeWork said it had at the end of June. The company is also expected to shed another 1,000 employees as it closes or sells divisions that are not part of its core business of subletting office space. Additionally, roughly 1,000 building maintenance employees will be transferred to outside contractors.

In a statement, a WeWork representative said, “The company is making necessary layoffs to create a more efficient organization.”

Under its former chief executive and co-founder, Adam Neumann, WeWork went on a frantic expansion that saddled the company with large losses. The company lost $1.25 billion in the three months that ended in September, more than twice as much as the company had lost in the same period a year earlier. Concern about WeWork’s finances and its unusual corporate governance forced the company to withdraw its initial public offering in September.