What you need to know
- Meta previously announced its plan to lay off more than 11,000 employees in late 2022.
- The company has just announced plans to let go of another 10,000 employees.
- Meta has referred to 2023 as its "Year of Efficiency."
Meta is telling its employees to brace for more layoffs as the company continues shedding its workforce. In an update to employees shared publicly on Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company plans to reduce its workforce by around 10,000 and close roughly 5,000 unfilled roles.
The move is the company's latest effort to increase efficiency by optimizing workflows across the company and removing unnecessary or redundant roles.
"Our efficiency work has several parallel workstreams to improve organizational efficiency, dramatically increase developer productivity and tooling, optimize distributed work, garbage collect unnecessary processes, and more," Zuckerberg states in the note. "I've tried to be open about all the work that's underway, and while I know many of you are energized by this, I also recognize that the idea of upcoming org changes creates uncertainty and stress."
Meta will begin by reducing recruiting teams as it slows hiring, followed by organizational restructuring and layoffs within its tech groups in late April, and finally, members of its business groups. This will include removing multiple management layers for an improved information flow. Meta will also cancel several low-priority projects, invest in tools to improve efficiency, and encourage more in-person work.
"For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year and had the resources to invest in many new products," Zuckerberg continues. "But last year was a humbling wake-up call." He refers to the "difficult" decision to lay off 11,000 employees in November, representing roughly 13% of its workforce. This new round of layoffs sees Meta shedding around 21,000 full-time workers, a move the company says could take until the end of the year.
During the most recent earnings report, Meta coined 2023 as its "Year of Efficiency," signaling more changes on the horizon as the company sought to streamline its business as it wades through a macroeconomic environment.
"I do think things like reducing layers of management should make it so information flows better through the company, and so you can make faster decisions, Zuckerberg stated during the earnings call. "And I think, ultimately, that'll help us not only make better, better products, but I think it'll help us attract and retain the best people who want to work in a faster-moving environment."
Meta is far from the only company to shed thousands of employees. Amazon announced two separate rounds of layoffs, reducing its headcount by about 18,000. Microsoft and Alphabet have also reduced their workforce, highlighting a shift for companies as they deal with economic pressures following pandemic hiring sprees.
As for Meta, the company has placed big bets on AI and virtual reality, despite some investor pushback due to the heavy cost accrued by its Reality Labs division. However, despite the losses, Zuckerberg remains dedicated to the work and the long-term benefits it could bring the company, even if that means changing how Meta operates.
"My hope is to make these org changes as soon as possible in the year so we can get past this period of uncertainty and focus on the critical work ahead."
