On Tuesday, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook. Announced its plan to lay off 10,000 employees, marking the second round of mass layoffs in just four months. Notably, the company had previously cut 11,000 jobs. Making it the first major tech firm to announce a second round of such significant workforce reductions.
In a staff message, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced. That Meta Platforms plans to cut its team size by approximately 10,000 people and eliminate around 5,000 open positions that have yet to be filled. As part of a broader restructuring effort, Meta Platforms will flatten its organizational structure. Terminate lower-priority projects, and slow down its recruitment process. Leading to the layoff of 10,000 employees and the elimination of 5,000 unfilled roles.
To make 2023 the “Year of Efficiency,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is targeting cost cuts of $5 billion in expenses. Bringing the company’s spending down to between $89 billion and $95 billion. This move comes just four months after Meta’s first round of layoffs, which saw the company cut 11,000 jobs. As a result of this announcement, Meta’s shares rose by 2% during premarket trading.
The economic downturn has led to a series of mass job cuts across corporate America. Companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, and Microsoft have all made significant layoffs. The tech industry, in particular, has laid off over 280,000 workers. Since the beginning of 2022, with about 40% of them happening this year, according to layoffs tracking site layoffs.fyi.
While Meta is pouring billions of dollars into building the futuristic metaverse, it has unfortunately struggled with a post-pandemic slump in advertising spending from companies facing high inflation and rising interest rates. Consequently, in November 2022, the company announced its first mass layoffs, cutting headcount by 13%. Despite this setback, as of the end of 2022, Meta had a headcount of 86,482, up 20% from the previous year.
