Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to lay off 10,000 jobs to cut costs

Meta, the leading American technology company and the owner of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, has reportedly announced its plans to lay off around 10,000 employees.

Apparently, this is going to be the second round of significant layoffs at the technology giant after 11,000 employees were let go in November.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that the changes, which are part of a year of efficiency, will be difficult.

In addition to the 10,000 job cuts, he informed employees that 5,000 positions within the company will go unfilled.

In a memo, Zuckerberg expressed his belief that the firm's sharp sales deceleration in 2022 had served as a humble wake-up call for it.

Meta previously revealed that earnings were reduced by 4% year on year in the quarter leading up to December 2022, although it nevertheless managed to achieve a profit of over $23 billion in 2022.

Sources also reveal that citing some of the issues affecting Meta and causing the slowdown, Zuckerberg listed increasing regulation, rising interest rates in the United States, and geopolitical turmoil throughout the world.

The most recent layoffs occur as corporations, such as Amazon and Google, struggle to strike a balance between cost-cutting initiatives and the need to maintain competitiveness.

Apparently, Amazon revealed at the start of this year that it expected to reduce over 18,000 positions due to "the unpredictable economy" and quick hiring during the Covid-19 outbreak, while Alphabet, Google's parent firm, slashed 12,000 employees.

As per layoffs.fyi, a website that analyses employment losses in the industry, almost 128,000 jobs have already been lost in the tech industry in 2023.

Zuckerberg stated that the recruitment team is going to be the first to be informed of the cuts and that they would know about it on Wednesday.

Also, he specified when other groups would be notified. Zuckerberg also stated in a memo to employees on Tuesday that the company anticipated announcing restructuring and cutbacks in the technology groups in late April 2023, followed by the business groups in late May this year.

Source credit: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64954124