Meta plans new layoffs — that may affect Nigerian workers

Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s behemoth, and owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is planning a new round of layoffs that is likely to affect thousands of workers in addition to 11,000 workers sacked just months ago.

– A key point to note

The mass layoffs could happen as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg. It is not yet clear how the new layoffs will affect Nigerian staff of the company, which has a presence in Lagos.

– Why this matters

Meta fired 13% of its workforce in November 2022 with Mr Zuckerberg later branding 2023 the “year of efficiency” indicating more cost-cutting measures are likely to come. More dismissals mean thousands more will be rendered jobless across the world.

“Meta will focus on cutting projects that are not performing or may no longer be crucial and we plan on removing middle management to make decisions faster,” he told analysts in February.

– Learn more

By November, Meta had a workforce of about 85,000. Its Facebook arm had nearly 3 billion active users, Instagram had 1.3 billion users by January. Over 2.24 billion people use WhatsApp monthly.

Still, the tech giant is facing rising cost with its annual expenses up 22% to $25.8 billion during the last quarter and the overall sales reduced 4% to $32 billion.

“We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency,” Mr Zuckerberg said last fall when Meta announced layoffs. “But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go.”