Facebook Owner Meta Starts Final Round of Layoffs – According to an insider, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, began implementing the final phase of a three-stage layoff process on Wednesday. This is part of their plan, announced in March, to reduce their workforce by 10,000 positions.
In March, Meta made headlines as the first major technology company to announce a second wave of large-scale layoffs, having previously let go of over 11,000 employees. These cuts have brought their employee count back to approximately the same level as it was in mid-2021, following a period of rapid expansion where their workforce doubled since 2020.
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On Wednesday, several employees turned to professional networking platforms like LinkedIn to disclose that they had been affected by the latest round of layoffs, which were anticipated to have a significant impact on the ad sales, marketing, and partnerships departments.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in March said that the bulk of the layoffs in the company’s second round would take place in three “moments” over several months, largely finishing in May. Some smaller rounds could continue after that, he said. Overall the cuts hit non-engineering roles most heavily, reinforcing the primacy of those who write the code at Meta.
Zuckerberg pledged in March to restructure business teams “substantially” and return to a “more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles.” Executives speaking at a company town hall revealed that even though the cuts were primarily targeted at technology teams, non-engineering positions such as content design and user experience research were the most severely affected.
During the town hall, Mark Zuckerberg stated that approximately 4,000 employees were laid off in April, following a smaller reduction in recruiting teams in March. Meta’s decision to downsize came after months of declining revenue growth due to both high inflation and a decrease in digital advertising resulting from the decline in the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom.
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Furthermore, the company has been investing billions of dollars in its Reality Labs unit, focused on the metaverse, which incurred a loss of $13.7 billion in 2022. Additionally, there is an ongoing project to improve the infrastructure to better support artificial intelligence initiatives.
