In its second round of cuts, Meta — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — announced Tuesday that 10,000 employees, roughly 13 percent of its workforce, would be sent packing and 5,000 openings were being eliminated as the tech giant seeks to slim down amid worsening economic conditions.
* Facebook Parent Meta to Lay Off 10,000 Employees --WSJ
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) March 14, 2023
* Cuts to Come in Multiple Rounds in Coming Months
* Layoffs Come on Top of 11,000 Job Cuts Announced in November$META
Toward the end of 2022, Meta let 11,000 employees go in its first mass reduction in headcount, which means the company is now the first in Silicon Valley to announce a second round of layoffs amid the current economic situation, according to Reuters. And this likely won't be the end of cuts, either.
In making the announcement, Meta Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't sound any too optimistic about the economic reality he's now working to adapt his company to, saying "we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years." As a result, Zuckerberg explained there would be additional layoffs announced in April and May.
More, via Reuters:
Meta, which is pouring billions of dollars to build the futuristic metaverse, has struggled with a post-pandemic slump in advertising spending from companies worried about the economic outlook.
In response, Zuckerberg has promised to turn 2023 into the "Year of Efficiency". With the latest move, Meta expects expenses in 2023 to come in between $86 billion and $92 billion, lower than the $89 billion to $95 billion forecast previously.
Zuckerberg said Meta will remove multiple layers of management, ask managers to become individual contributors and give them less than 10 direct reports, which would in turn make the organization "flatter."
"We don't expect to grow headcount as quickly, it makes more sense to fully utilize each manager's capacity and defragment layers as much as possible," he said.
Facebook is not alone in the tech sector layoff pile-on, either. All told, nearly 300,000 employees have been laid off from tech companies since January 2022, with four-in-ten employees losing their jobs just since the beginning of 2023.
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