10,000 More Employee Layoffs to Come at Meta, Mark Zuckerberg Confirms

The Facebook parent’s CEO announced Tuesday that the restructuring should be completed “over the next couple of months”

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Meta

Meta Platforms on Tuesday told employees to expect another round of layoffs as the company eliminates 10,000 jobs.

In a memo to staff, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media company will also close around 5,000 additional open roles that have not been filled. Restructuring plans “focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates,” will be announced in coming months, with layoffs in tech groups landing in late April and in business groups in May.

“In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes,” Zuckerberg said.

“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,” the memo said.

The job cuts, which are coming on top of 11,000 eliminated roles at the end of last year, were expected. It will be only the second round of layoffs for the company, which was founded in 2004.

Zuckerberg said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call that 2023 would be the Facebook and Instagram parent’s “Year of Efficiency” as the company focuses on becoming “stronger and more nimble.”

News of the layoffs helped boost Meta stock. Shares added $9.49, or 5.2%, to $190.38 in morning trading.

In Tuesday’s memo, Zuckerberg repeated the “efficiency” phrase, and told staff the goals of this effort are to “make us a better technology company” and “to improve our financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long term vision.”

That difficult environment is being felt across the tech industry. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo and Zoom, along with a host of smaller companies, have all announced layoffs in the past few months.

“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” Zuckerberg told his staff. “It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success. They’ve dedicated themselves to our mission and I’m personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.”

The company will lift hiring and transfer freezes after the restructuring is complete, the CEO said. “Other relevant efficiency timelines include targeting this summer to complete our analysis from our hybrid work year of learning so we can further refine our distributed work model. We also aim to have a steady stream of developer productivity enhancements and process improvements throughout the year.”

The memo went on at length to describe what Zuckerberg called “the broader context of our vision, our culture and our operating philosophy.”

The company aims to build “new ways for people to feel closer,” he said. “One day we hope to enable every person to feel as strong a sense of connection as you feel when you’re physically with someone you love,” he added, in a clear reference to the development of the metaverse that the company is pouring money into. Meta is also working on a Twitter-like text-based messaging platform.

Zuckerberg said the company is “removing multiple layers of management,” and that in the future, headcount at the organization won’t grow so quickly. And its focusing on eliminating low-priority projects that take a lot of effort.

“Since we reduced our workforce last year, one surprising result is that many things have gone faster. In retrospect, I underestimated the indirect costs of lower priority projects,” he wrote.

“A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster,” he continued. “People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling. We will become an even greater magnet for the most talented people. That’s why in our Year of Efficiency, we are focused on canceling projects that are duplicative or lower priority and making every organization as lean as possible.”

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