14th March 2023 – (Menlo Park) Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has announced a second round of mass layoffs that will result in 10,000 job cuts and the closure of 5,000 open positions. This comes just four months after the company let go of 11,000 employees, making it the first Big Tech firm to announce a second wave of large-scale layoffs. The restructuring will involve the company flattening its organizational structure, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing its hiring rates. The move is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to make 2023 the “Year of Efficiency,” with a goal of cutting $5 billion in expenses to between $89 billion and $95 billion. Meta’s shares rose by 2% in premarket trading following the announcement.
The decision to implement the mass layoffs comes amid a broader trend of job cuts across corporate America due to a deteriorating economy. Even Big Tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft have announced job cuts in recent years. According to a layoffs tracking site, the tech industry has cut more than 280,000 jobs since the start of 2022, with around 40% of them occurring this year.
Meta has been struggling with a slump in advertising spending following the pandemic, as companies face high inflation and rising interest rates. The company, which is investing billions of dollars to build the metaverse, had already undergone its first round of mass layoffs in November, cutting headcount by 13%. Despite the job cuts, Meta’s headcount stood at 86,482 at the end of 2022, a 20% increase from the previous year.