Facebook-parent Meta, reportedly in line for mass layoffs

These expected layoffs at Meta will be the first broad head-count reduction to occur in the company’s 18-year history.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company is planning to begin mass layoffs starting this week. Meta will be yet another tech company to join the recent list of large-scale layoffs. 

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, according to people familiar with the matter, the layoffs are expected to affect thousands of employees and the announcement is to be expected latest by Wednesday. 

As of 30th September, Meta had about 87,000 employees worldwide across its different platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 

Additionally, in Meta’s third quarter results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated the firm’s staff would not increase by the end of 2023 and might see a slight decrease. 

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On the last earnings call in late October, Zuckerberg was seen quoting, "In 2023, we're going to focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas. So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today"

The mass-layoff news at Meta comes right after Elon Musk laid off around 7,500 of Twitter’s employees last week.

Apart from this, several tech companies including Microsoft Corp, Snap Inc, and Byju’s were names that declared large-scale layoffs and have cut jobs and scaled back hiring which is a direct result of global economic growth due to higher interest rates, rising inflation, and a massive energy crisis in Europe.