Facebook owner Meta confirms it will lay off 10,000 more employees for ‘efficiency’ concerns
Facebook owner Meta will lay off 10,000 more staff as it further cuts its workforce in an effort to “efficiency”.
The new round of layoffs comes just months after the social media group laid off a record 11,000 employees, reducing its workforce from around 87,000 to 76,000 in November.
Founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told staff yesterday that the second wave of cuts was part of a “year of efficiency” as he seeks to boost financial and stock market performance.
Wielding the axe: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla
“As I spoke about efficiency this year, I said part of our job will be to cut jobs – and that will serve both to build a leaner, more technical business and to improve our business performance. to enable long-term vision,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“I understand that this update may still seem surprising, so I’d like to provide some broader context on our vision, culture and operating philosophy.”
The company, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, said restructuring plans will focus on “flattening” the organization and putting hiring plans on hold.
Zuckerberg said Meta recruiting teams were likely to be affected as a result of these plans and will be notified today of their fate.
The Silicon Valley titan plans to announce layoffs at tech groups in late April, then business groups in late May, as the ax swings over underperforming projects. Overall, it will reduce the workforce by around 10,000 and close around 5,000 open positions for which he has not yet hired, meaning hundreds of jobs in the UK could be at risk.
The company’s workforce should be around 66,000 people worldwide following these new cuts.
The stock has already rebounded more than 50% this year and shares jumped another 7% yesterday in the update.
The company has struggled to grow over the past 12 months, in part due to growing competition from Tik Tok and shrinking advertiser budgets.
While Meta’s recent fourth-quarter results were slightly more upbeat, parts of the business proved less fruitful for the company, prompting Zuckerberg, 38, to “cut projects that aren’t working or aren’t working.” perhaps no longer as crucial”.
But it’s not just Meta that is cutting jobs. Tech companies have been particularly hard hit by layoffs after overhiring during the pandemic, when online businesses have boomed.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, as well as Amazon and Microsoft, have all made significant layoffs in recent months.
Data tracking site Layoffs.fyi said 128,202 workers have been laid off so far this year, adding to the 161,411 laid off in 2022.
Victoria Scholar, an analyst at brokerage Interactive Investor, said: ‘The pressures on the tech sector over the past year due to weak economic growth, slowing advertising revenue, skyrocketing inflation and rising interest rates of interest remain, suggesting further job cuts in the tech sector could be on the cards.’
