Meta, previously known as Facebook, has announced another round of layoffs aimed at reducing costs. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company will let go of around 10,000 workers and close roughly 5,000 open positions that have not yet been filled. The company will also reduce the size of its recruiting team and announce further restructuring efforts for its tech and business departments in late April and late May, respectively. The layoffs are expected to take until the end of 2023 to complete, although this timeline may vary for Meta’s operations outside the US.
Zuckerberg also said that the company would focus on “flattening” its organization structure and canceling lower-priority projects. This flattening reportedly involves reducing middle management positions. Reports suggest that the layoffs will affect teams working on wearable devices as part of the Reality Labs hardware and metaverse division.
This latest round of layoffs follows a decline in Meta’s quarterly revenue, as its advertising business slowed down. In addition, the company has announced plans to cut costs related to Reality Labs as it continues to build its vision of the metaverse.
Many other tech companies, including Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Twitter, have also announced major rounds of layoffs in recent months. Meta’s November 2022 layoff of over 11,000 employees marked its first mass layoff, and this second round of layoffs was widely expected.
