There will be 10,000 job cuts, according to Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The tech juggernaut, which fired 11,000 workers in November, will be laying off large numbers of workers once more.
The cuts, which are a part of a “year of efficiency,” were described as “tough” by Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
He informed staff that 5,000 open positions at the company would not be filled in addition to the 10,000 jobs that would be eliminated.
In a memo, Mr. Zuckerberg stated that he thought the company’s 2022 revenue slowdown had served as “a humbling wake-up call” for the organisation.
In a prior statement, Meta stated that while its earnings were down 4% year over year in the three months leading up to December 2022, it still managed to turn a profit of more than $23 billion for the entire year.
A few of the factors affecting Meta and causing the slowdown, according to Mr. Zuckerberg, are higher interest rates in the US, global geopolitical unrest, and increased regulation.
I believe we need to be ready for the possibility that this new economic reality will last for many years, he said.
The latest job cuts occur as businesses, including Google and Amazon, struggle with how to strike a balance between cost-cutting measures and the need to maintain competitiveness.
In January of this year, Google’s parent company Alphabet cut 12,000 positions while Amazon announced it would eliminate more than 18,000 jobs due to “the uncertain economy” and a surge in hiring during the pandemic.
Over 128,000 positions have been eliminated from the tech sector so far in 2023, according to layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job losses in the industry.
Cutting schedule
The recruitment team would learn on Wednesday if they were among those who would be affected by the cuts, according to Mr. Zuckerberg, who also promised that they would be the first to know.
Additionally, he specified when other teams would be notified: “We expect to announce restructuring and layoffs in our tech groups in late April 2023, and then our business groups in late may 2023,” he said in the memo to staff on Tuesday.
“It might take until the end of the year to finish these changes in a small number of circumstances.
Local leaders will provide additional information afterward, and our timelines for international teams will also differ.
Sadly, as the industry’s titans continue to tighten their belts, we are becoming accustomed to hearing about significant tech layoffs.
Advertising is the primary source of income for many people like Meta. Currently, they are dealing with a perfect storm of declining ad revenues from businesses that have their own expenses to cover and a user base that has less disposable income, devaluing the value of the existing advertising space.
In the most recent round of layoffs, it’s interesting to see that Meta is turning to its recruitment team.
Because of two factors, I frequently hear that Silicon Valley companies have a propensity to hire excessively. First and foremost, so that they are prepared with personnel to handle any potential sudden growth (just look at TikTok). Second, they want to keep those individuals who are regarded as “top tech talent” away from their competitors.
It seems like both are now considered luxuries that are out of reach.
With Mark Zuckerberg’s massive bet that the metaverse will be The Next Big Thing, there is also the additional risk of meta. If he’s right, his company will reclaim its throne, but if he’s wrong, the more than $15 billion he’s already spent on it could vanish in a cloud of mixed reality smoke.
No new hires would be made, according to Mr. Zuckerberg, who also stated that he wanted to “flatten” the organisation by getting rid of multiple layers of management.
He included information about hybrid work in a section of his correspondence. His statements that software engineers who joined Meta in person performed better than those who joined remotely, indicating hybrid working will come under examination during the current “year of efficiency”.
Engineers who work with teammates in person at least three days a week perform better on average, according to Mr. Zuckerberg’s letter.
“We’re concentrating on getting a better understanding of this as well as ways to make sure people connect in the right ways so they can function properly.
While this is going on, I urge everyone to take advantage of more in-person collaboration opportunities.
