CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced Meta will lay off around 10,000 employees and 5,000 open roles at the company in the coming months. The cuts are part of Zuckerberg's "Year of Efficiency" plan, adding to the 11,000 layoffs last November.
Zuckerberg shared his announcement on Facebook, where he briefly laid out some of Meta's restructuring timeline. The layoffs begin with recruiting teams tomorrow, March 15, while other employees find out if their position is cut in April and May. In some cases, Zuckerberg noted these changes may not happen until the end of 2023, and international teams may not share the same timeline.
The layoffs come with 5,000 opening closures and plans for sweeping organizational changes at Meta, too. Zuckerberg's statement articulates some of the guiding principles for the Meta strategy, like "flatter is faster" regarding its new management structure and "leaner is better," referencing last year's cuts.
"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," Zuckerberg wrote."A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. 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."
When explaining business performance and a "difficult economic environment," Zuckerburg called 2022 a "humbling wake-up call."
"I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years," Zuckerberg continued. "Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation. Given this outlook, we'll need to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success."
Zuckerberg said feedback from last Fall's 11,000 layoffs led him to make the announcement earlier, allowing "more transparency sooner."
When including last November's job cuts, Meta's total layoffs through the next few months total around 21,000 layoffs – about 24% of its workforce. The company joins other tech giants like Microsoft, Twitter, and Google in a series of cuts that have led to tens of thousands left unemployed.
Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She's worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today's FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.
