In what has become an increasingly common scene, another wave of job cuts is set to come at Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp parent Meta. According to a report by Vox, the social media company will conduct yet another round of mass layoffs across its organizations this week. These layoffs are in addition to the 11,000 employees that were laid off by the company in November 2022, and another 10,000 job cuts announced earlier this year.
The report by Vox cited “several sources working at the company,” and from the looks of it, the new round of layoffs is part of Meta’s downsizing and restructuring efforts during what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dubbed the “Year of Efficiency.”
This development comes after Zuckerberg announced in March that the company will be reducing a total of 10,000 workers in the following months as it focussed on cutting down costs amidst an economic downturn. At that time, he added that “org leaders” will announce restructuring plans that are focused on flattening the company’s organizations, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing its rate of recruitment.
The adverse macroeconomic conditions, which have been prevailing in the market since the previous year, have forced multiple enterprises (high-profile companies and startups alike) to tighten their belts, cut down on costs, and gain a new-found focus on profitability. This has often come at the cost of laying off employees by the thousands (even tens of thousands, as Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and others can attest to).
According to an internal memo, which was posted to a message board for Meta employees on Tuesday, the layoffs begin today, April 19, and will impact employees across various technical teams. These teams include those working on Facebook, Instagram, Reality Labs, and WhatsApp, and could go on to cut around 4000 jobs (although Meta declined from commenting on the exact number of layoffs). Teams who are working on game development may be safe for the time being, since Meta continues to bet big on its Metaverse. In fact, they might even be able to hire for some roles, once layoffs conclude.
Increased focus on gaming from Reality Labs is a big shift for the social media company, but is hardly unsurprising, given that the Reality Labs division has been bleeding for several quarters. Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform, received billions of dollars in investment. But failed to yield significant returns. At the end of the previous year, it had just around 200,000 monthly active users.
“This will be a difficult time as we say goodbye to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to Meta,” Lori Goler, Meta’s head of people, said in the memo. It added that impacted employees in North America will be notified via mail between 4-5 AM PT, while the timeline may vary in other countries. The company is also asking employees in the same region to work remotely on Wednesday to give people “space to process the news.”
