US tech firm Meta on Tuesday announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in the second round of layoffs.
The latest retrenchment announcement comes on the back of axing 11,000 employees in November amidst the deep economic downturn the tech industry is facing. At that time, its headcount stood at 86,482 at 2022-end, up 20 per cent from a year ago.
On Tuesday, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a memo to employees said that most of the cuts would happen in April and May, and will continue through the end of the year, according to Reuters news agency.
In addition to the 10,000 layoffs, the firm won’t fill the 5,000 vacancies, Zuckerberg said, adding that restructurings in the tech group would be announced in late April and cuts to business groups would come in May.
“For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year and had the resources to invest in many new products. But last year was a humbling wake-up call,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
Listing the factors affecting Meta’s growth, Zuckerberg said that higher interest rates in the US, global geopolitical instability and increased regulation is contributing to the firm’s slowdown.
The tech billionaire said that there would be no new recruitment until the restructuring was complete, adding that he aimed to make the company “flatter” by “removing multiple layers of management”.
Last month, the company said that a slump in online advertising and growing competition from other social media platforms have had impacts on Meta.
It has been focusing on the metaverse, an online virtual world that incorporates elements of augmented reality, virtual reality, avatars and other communication, and has spent millions of dollars on it.
(With inputs from agencies)
For all the latest business News Click Here
