Social media company Meta has now initiated yet another round of layoffs across its organization. From what we know so far, the latest round of job cuts has impacted employees across several key divisions. This includes employees who are working on Threads, recruiting, legal operations, and design, in addition to those working on core platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp. Reality Labs, Meta’s division focused on virtual and augmented reality, was also affected by this round of job cuts.
Meta is no stranger to layoffs, and the newest development simply continues a trend of workforce reductions seen over the past two years. Two years ago, the social media giant axed 11,000 people (which amounted to 13% of its workforce). Later last year, it gave job cuts to nearly 10,000 employees (as well as withdrawing 5,000 unfilled positions) as part of Mark Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency.”
The casualties of the latest round of layoffs is unknown (for now), and comes at a time when Meta is noting slowing user growth on its social media platforms, as well as heightened competition from rival platforms like TikTok. Things are made worse by Meta’s investments in virtual and augmented reality through Reality Labs, which have been expensive and yet to yield significant returns. It is thus no surprise that Meta is now taking a step back to cut down on costs, but it is the employees who are paying the price.
Dave Arnold, a spokesperson for the company, confirmed the layoffs. “Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy. This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees,” he commented on the matter.
For their part, Meta employees have taken to social media platforms to share their woes. For example, Jane Manchun Wong, a well-known software engineer, announced her departure from the company via Threads. Wong had joined Meta’s Threads team last year, and expressed her feelings about the layoff: “I’m still trying to process this, but I’ve been informed that my role at Meta has been impacted. Thank you to everyone, especially my Threads and Instagram teammates, for my wild journey at Meta.”
