Zuckerberg confirms Meta will lay off 10,000 employees

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has confirmed it is laying off another 10,000 workers. It is the second wave of cuts at the company in four months.

– A key point to note

The company laid off 11,000 workers in November. It will now have about 65,000 employees, down from a peak last year of about 86,000.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts were necessary to improve the company’s “financial performance in a difficult environment.”

Meta’s shares were up over 5% on Tuesday morning.

“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” he said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.

“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 firm will also close around 5,000 open job positions it has yet to fill and will lay off more members of its recruiting team, Zuckerberg said. Members of Meta’s recruiting team will be notified of their employment status on Wednesday.

– Learn more

After November layoffs, the company reduced workers’ perks and benefits in a bid to cut costs. Zuckerberg later said 2023 would be Meta’s “year of efficiency”.

This latest round of layoffs has been expected since for weeks. In his new message to employees, Zuckerberg warned that the company might be looking to cut expenses for some time to come.

“At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years,” he wrote in the message that was posted on Facebook.

“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.”