Meta has initiated a fresh round of layoffs, according to media reports. It seems that the latest batch of job cuts is the final one of the three-part rounds of layoffs that had been announced by the company a few months ago. At that time, Meta announced its plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs across all of its platforms – WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.
Occurrences of employees being given the boot by companies have become exceedingly commonplace over the past months – startups and enterprises alike have laid off thousands of employees and re-evaluated their strategies to cut down on costs and remain profitable, especially after a period of over-hiring (extensive recruitment) and stretching of their operations. The current round of layoffs impacted employees working in business roles across the organization and across several departments, including ad sales, marketing, communications, and partnerships.
In fact, over 700 companies laid off a total of 199047 employees in the past five months itself. Other major companies such as Microsoft, Twitter, and Amazon have, over the past months, eliminated thousands of roles across their organizations as well. Some Meta employees took to platforms like LinkedIn to announce the development, and that they were laid off.
“Finding work you care about and believe in and the right people to be in the trenches with is an incredible dream; it also makes moments like this incredibly difficult,” one employee affected by the latest round of layoffs said in a LinkedIn post. Another called it “a hell of a rise while it lasted.”
“Reflecting on the past one and half years working with the talented people in the infrastructure team, specifically DEC Design and Retrofits, it’s starting to sink in the amount of scope and opportunity I was able to contribute to and support others in my role as a manager and project lead. I am proud to have helped increase the business capacity and shape the overall direction of the company,” wrote Chris Bowler, who started working at Meta since 2021.
It is estimated that about 6000 employees at Meta will be impacted by the development.
The latest round of job cuts comes more than six months after Meta significantly downsized its workforce by around 11,000 in November 2022 (amounting to about 13% of its workforce). It also comes after the round of job cuts impacted Meta’s tech teams last month, when around 4000 employees were handed pink slips. As per media reports, the current number of employees at the company have reduced to near mid-2021 levels after the current round of layoffs. The layoff process is expected to conclude by the end of the month, although there might be additional smaller rounds of layoffs that continue afterward.
It is interesting to see that Meta’s so-called ‘Year of Efficiency’ includes firing thousands of employees, especially at a time when the company continues to invest heavily in the metaverse. The social media giant may have changed its name to reflect its commitment towards the metaverse, but its Reality Labs division continues to bleed significantly and is yet to provide solid returns on the investments.
