Facebook parent Meta to lay off 10,000 employees in second round of job cuts

SAN FRANCISCO Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after it let go of 11,000 employees, the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs.

We expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we havent yet hired, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to staff.

The layoffs are part of a wider restructuring at Meta that will see the company flatten its organisational structure, cancel lower-priority projects and reduce its hiring rates as part of the move. The news sent Metas shares up 2 per cent in pre-market trading.

The move underscores Mr Zuckerbergs push to turn 2023 into the Year of Efficiency with promised cost cuts of US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) in expenses to between US$89 billion and US$95 billion.

A deteriorating economy has brought about a series of mass job cuts across corporate America: from Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to Big Tech firms, including Amazon.com and Microsoft.

The tech industry has laid off more than 280,000 workers since the start of 2022, with about 40 per cent of them coming this year, according to layoffs tracking site layoffs.fyi.

Meta, which is pouring billions of dollars to build the futuristic metaverse, has struggled with a post-Covid-19-pandemic slump in advertising spending from companies facing high inflation and rising interest rates.

Metas move in November to slash headcount by 13 per cent marked the first mass layoffs in its 18-year history. Its headcount stood at 86,482 at the end of 2022, up 20 per cent from a year ago. REUTERS More On This Topic Whatever happened to the metaverse? Tech CEOs will pay a harsh price for these job cuts