Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is reportedly planning to start mass layoffs this week, affecting thousands of employees.
The job cuts could be announced as early as Wednesday, according to US media reports.
During Meta’s disappointing third-quarter results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that staffing may be reduced.
“In 2023, we will concentrate our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas,” he said.
Meta employs approximately 87,000 people worldwide across its various platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The job cuts are the result of difficulties in the tech sector as the industry deals with slowing global economic growth.
Mr. Zuckerberg predicted that some teams would “stay flat or shrink” over the next year.
“In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as roughly the same size, or even slightly smaller, than we are today,” he said.
As advertisers struggle with inflation and rising interest rates, ad-supported platforms such as Facebook and Alphabet’s Google are suffering from budget cuts.
Stripe and Lyft announced large-scale layoffs last Thursday, while Amazon announced a hiring freeze in its corporate offices.
Twitter laid off roughly half of its 7,500 employees last week after being acquired by Elon Musk.
Meta faces challenges not only from the global economic situation, but also from TikTok, Apple’s privacy changes, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse, and the ever-present threat of regulation.
Mr. Zuckerberg has stated that he expects the metaverse investments to yield positive results in about a decade.
Meanwhile, he claims he needs to reorganize teams in order to cut costs.
Also read: Twitter employees claim layoffs have begun after Elon Musk’s takeover
In June, the social media company cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30%, with Mr. Zuckerberg warning employees to brace themselves for a downturn in the economy.
Altimeter Capital Management, Meta’s shareholder, previously stated in an open letter to Mr. Zuckerberg that the company needs to streamline by cutting jobs and capital expenditure. It also stated that Meta has lost investor trust as it increased spending and began focusing on the metaverse.
Over the last year, the company’s market value has dropped to $600 billion (£524 billion).
Source: BBC
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