Meta on course for thousands more layoffs in further efficiency push

Updated on: 07 March 2023

Justinas Vainilavičius
Senior Journalist

meta_hq _2 — Meta offices. Image by Meta

Meta continues to downsize its workforce, in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described as its “year of efficiency.”

The second wave of major layoffs at Meta could start as soon as this week and affect thousands of jobs, Bloomberg News reported, citing company insiders.

It follows last year’s reductions that saw Meta eliminating 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce, to cut costs.

The latest round of cuts could be finalized by next week and are driven by the company’s financial targets, according to Bloomberg.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had been asking directors and vice presidents to make lists of employees that could be let go, the report said.

It noted “heightened anxiety and low morale” among employees concerned they could lose their bonuses, due to be paid this month, if they were laid off beforehand.

Meta told Cybernews through a spokesperson that it had “nothing new to add here” and referred to Zuckerberg’s earlier statements about making Meta a more efficient organization by removing some layers of middle management.

“As part of our ‘year of efficiency,’ he also noted that we’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial,” the spokesperson said.

In addition to cutting costs, Meta is also looking for alternative sources of revenue to offset a slowdown in its advertising business. These include a subscription model for its social media platforms and monetization of WhatsApp, its popular messaging service.

More than 125,000 roles were cut globally across the tech sector in the first months of 2023, according to a tracking website Layoffs.fyi. In comparison, more than 161,000 jobs were cut last year.