US online brokerage company, Robinhood, has laid off approximately seven percent of its full-time employees equating to around 150 employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The financial services company develops cash management including stocks, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency.

The round of cuts is the company’s third in just over a year as customer trading activity slows. In 2022, the company slashed 1,000 jobs in two round layoffs.

Robinhood’s had around 2,300 employees at the end of 2022, according to its annual report.

Chief financial officer, Jason Warnick, said in a message to employees that the reduction in staff was made to “adjust to volumes and to better align team structures”.

“We’re ensuring operational excellence in how we work together on an ongoing basis. In some cases, this may mean teams make changes based on volume, workload, org design, and more,” a Robinhood spokesperson said in a statement Monday.

Robinhood reported in its last quarterly report that the volume of employees choosing to leave the company had increased after its layoffs in April and August 2022.

Robinhood aided the stock trading frenzy during the Covid-19 pandemic, encouraging individuals stuck at home to open accounts on its easy-to-use trading app.

The company announced a record three million new accounts logged by the company in the first quarter of 2022.

In the second quarter of 2021, Robinhood had 21 million monthly active users, the company’s ‘personal best’, according to public filings.

However, Robinhood reported that its monthly active users had decreased, lowering to less than 11 million from May 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The news comes less than a week after Robinhood announced its agreement to buy credit-card start-up X1 in a $95m cash deal. The agreement is part of the company’s plan to broaden its product offerings beyond trading.