Several sources from within Meta have informed the Financial Times about a second round of layoffs at the $469bn social media organisation, with continued economic slowdown said to be a key factor.
A memo to staff released today announced that 10,000 employees would be let go, while 5,000 open roles at the company will be left unfilled.
The announcement follows staff reductions announced late last year, which saw around 11,000 employees lose their jobs, cutting a workforce that totalled approximately 87,000.
What’s more, multiple members of senior leadership have recently stepped down, including Nada Stirratt, vice-president of sales for the Americas on Monday (according to three internal sources), as well as chief business officer Marne Levine last month.
Additionally, some team budgets have reportedly been frozen, while two people have told the FT that promotions to director level positions have been halted, with both developments causing uncertainty that has been reportedly decreasing morale for months.
“We have a real dilemma on our hands in terms of talent when there’s so much chaos,” one senior Meta employee told the FT, adding that uncertainty was also affecting advancement and compensation.
Meta declined to comment on the latest round of workforce cuts.
>See also: Big tech decreasing hiring and staff amidst economic uncertainty
Responding to economic downturn
Investors have shown frustration at the size of the global workforce at Meta, as well as a lack of financial progress with operations relating to metaverse infrastructure.
An estimated $10bn a year is being invested into the metaverse, but profits aren’t projected to be realised for many years yet.
A downfall in advertising spend has also impacted the company, with competition with TikTok and other providers proving a struggle.
In response to economic uncertainty, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a focus on “efficiency” for this year, with projects deemed ineffective set to be cancelled, while some middle management layers would be trimmed “to make decisions faster” — the latter measure has either meant shifts into non-leadership roles, or redundancies.
This week, head of fintech Stephane Kasriel tweeted that NFT operations were being wound down, in order to focus more on “other ways to support creators, people, and businesses”.
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