Facebook parent Meta to cut 10,000 jobs, slash 5,000 more vacant positions
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Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after it let go 11,000 employees.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SAN FRANCISCO – Meta Platforms plans to lay off around 10,000 employees
The Facebook parent company is embarking on a “year of efficiency” to improve its financial performance and achieve longer-term goals. As part of those efforts, Meta is flattening the organisation, cancelling lower-priority projects and slowing hiring, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement on Tuesday.
The world’s largest social networking company laid off 11,000 people, or 13 per cent of its staff, last November.
The company expects to announce restructuring and layoffs in tech groups in late April, and business groups in late May, the statement said.
Mr Zuckerberg is also reducing the size of the recruiting team.
Meta employees had been bracing themselves for more layoffs in recent weeks. Mr Zuckerberg has been outspoken about the need to better prioritise projects and investments, and has hinted at additional job cuts.
Meta began its flattening process earlier this year, eliminating some middle managers and asking others to return to individual contributor roles instead of overseeing other employees. Even so, Mr Zuckerberg said “this update may still feel surprising”.
The company, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has seen a slowdown in advertising revenue, leading to its first-ever annual sales fall in 2022.
Mr Zuckerberg has shifted Meta’s focus and investment in the past year to virtual reality technology and the so-called metaverse, which he envisions as the next major computing platform.
Meta’s employee ranks expanded dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic as demand for the company’s digital services increased and Mr Zuckerberg leaned into the moment.
The social media giant’s headcount grew 30 per cent in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and then 23 per cent in 2021.
By the time Meta started eliminating jobs in November 2022, the company had more than 87,000 employees.
As part of its efficiency plan, Meta is focusing on returning to a “more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles”, Mr Zuckerberg said.
The company will invest in tools, such as those in artificial intelligence to help engineers write code faster, to make it “most effective over many years, not just this year”.
During the pandemic, Facebook was one of the first tech companies to offer all of its employees the ability to work from home. But Mr Zuckerberg is now encouraging his staff to “find more opportunities to work with your colleagues in person”.
As the Menlo Park, California-based company pares staff, workers have described heightened anxiety and low morale among colleagues. But Mr Zuckerberg’s focus on efficiency has been well received by Wall Street.
Meta stock has gained nearly 60 per cent since the beginning of the year. BLOOMBERG
