Meta Planning Fresh Job Cuts That Rival Last Year's Mass Layoffs
Meta is planning multiple rounds of additional layoffs that would amount to the same 13% cut to staffing it enacted last year, the Wall Street Journal reports(Opens in a new window).
The first wave of cuts is reportedly expected to be announced this week and will likely affect non-engineering positions “especially hard”, the report said.
In addition, the Facebook and Instagram parent is set to shut down projects such as some wearable devices in Meta’s loss-making Reality Labs VR division. In an earnings update last month, it was revealed the VR division lost a hefty $13.7 billion in 2022, $3.5 billion more than it lost in 2021.
On Thursday, Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li made some overtures to the planned cuts, saying at a Morgan Stanley-hosted technology conference, “We’re continuing to look across the company, across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, and really evaluate are we deploying our resources toward the highest leverage opportunities.”
This evaluation, she said, would “result in [Meta] making some tough decisions to wind down projects in some places, to shift resources away from some teams.”
The planned cuts come during a time that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described as Meta’s “year of efficiency.” When the company embarked on its first mass layoffs last year, Zuckerberg said he expected the company to end 2023 with around as many employees as it had in October 2022. The fresh wave of planned cuts appears to suggest that Meta is downsizing rather than flatlining, however.
As part of the efficiency savings, Meta announced it would trial making its staff book hot desks(Opens in a new window) before they arrive at the office, shifting away from permanently assigned desks or offices. This was heavily
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