Meta, which dismissed enough people to ask the question of how many people work at Meta, announced that they will make a new layoff. This time 10,000 people are expected to be affected.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced its plan to lay off another 10,000 workers, marking the second significant round of job cuts in just four months. In November 2022, the company eliminated approximately 13% of its workforce, or 11,000 jobs, in the single largest round of cuts in its history. The latest job cuts, announced on Tuesday, will take place over the next few months.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a Facebook post that the company would be restructuring and laying off employees in its tech and business groups in late April and May, respectively. However, in some cases, the process may take until the end of the year to complete. Zuckerberg announced that the company expects to reduce its team size by approximately 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that have not yet been hired.
How many people work at Meta?
You may say how many people work at Meta that they are making so many layoffs. Well, as of September 2022, Meta reported a headcount of 87,314, according to securities filings. With 11,000 job cuts announced in November and 10,000 announced on Tuesday, that would bring Meta’s headcount down to around 66,000 – a reduction of about 25%.
Meta is not the only Big Tech company to undergo layoffs due to higher inflation, recession fears, and pandemic-induced demand fluctuations. In the first few months of this year, Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet, and Microsoft have all confirmed major job cuts impacting tens of thousands of tech workers.
Check out Biggest tech layoffs 2022, if you wish to learn about COVID’s after-effects.
Zuckerberg previously blamed himself for the over-hiring that occurred during the pandemic’s early stages when the first round of job cuts was announced in November. Meta nearly doubled its headcount between March 2020 and September 2021 as the COVID-19 crisis led to a surge in demand for digital services. However, the situation changed when pandemic restrictions eased and people returned to their offline lives. Meta’s core business was also affected by privacy changes implemented by Apple and advertisers tightening budgets amid recession fears.
Zuckerberg’s announcement on Tuesday stated that the last year had been “a humbling wake-up call,” with the world economy changing, competitive pressures growing, and Meta’s growth slowing considerably. He added that the new economic reality might continue for many years, with higher interest rates leading to a leaner economy, more geopolitical instability leading to more volatility, and increased regulation leading to slower growth and increased innovation costs.
Efficiency and restructuring
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, Meta reported a sharp drop in profits and its third straight quarterly decline in revenue. During the earnings call, Zuckerberg promised investors that 2023 would be the “year of efficiency” for the company, following years of heavy investment in growth and a more immersive version of the internet called the metaverse.
Zuckerberg suggested on the earnings call that more job cuts might be coming. He stated that the company closed last year with difficult layoffs and restructured some teams, which was the beginning of the company’s focus on efficiency, not the end.
The company would be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial, but its main focus is on increasing the efficiency of executing top priorities. Zuckerberg also mentioned that the company would be flattening its org structure and removing some layers of middle management to make decisions faster.
Check out Zuckerberg’s letter on layoffs using the link here.
