Meta, the parent company of Facebook, recently carried out the final phase of its planned job cuts, resulting in a total reduction of 10,000 positions. Employees from various teams, including marketing, site security, enterprise engineering, program management, content strategy, and corporate communications, took to LinkedIn to share news of their unfortunate job losses. This round of layoffs completes a three-part plan that Meta announced in March.
Earlier this year, Meta became the first major technology company to announce a second round of significant layoffs, with over 11,000 employees being let go. This brought the company’s headcount back to around mid-2021 levels after a period of rapid expansion that had doubled its size since 2020.
Despite the job cuts, Meta’s stock performed well, closing slightly higher in a generally weaker market. The company’s shares have more than doubled in value this year, making it one of the top performers in the S&P 500 index. This success is largely attributed to Meta’s focus on artificial intelligence and its cost-cutting measures.
In March, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the majority of the second round of layoffs would occur in three phases over several months, with the process largely concluding in May. He also mentioned the possibility of smaller rounds of layoffs taking place afterwards.
The cuts primarily affected non-engineering roles, highlighting the importance of engineering positions within Meta. Zuckerberg expressed his commitment to restructuring the business teams significantly and returning to an optimal ratio of engineers to other roles.
Even within the technology teams, non-engineering positions such as content design and user experience research were significantly reduced, as discussed by executives during a company town hall meeting following the previous round of layoffs in April.
During the town hall, Zuckerberg revealed that around 4,000 employees lost their jobs in April, following a smaller reduction in the recruiting teams in March.
As part of these layoffs, Meta anticipated that approximately 490 employees at its international headquarters in Dublin would be affected, representing nearly 20% of its Irish workforce. Additionally, two prominent executives in India, Avinash Pant (Director of Marketing) and Saket Jha Saurabh (Director and Head of Media Partnerships), were also let go.
Meta’s decision to downsize its workforce comes after experiencing a slowdown in revenue growth, influenced by high inflation and a decline in digital advertising due to the contraction of the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom.
Meanwhile, the company continues to invest billions of dollars into its Reality Labs unit, which focuses on developing the metaverse and enhancing infrastructure to support artificial intelligence initiatives. However, the Reality Labs unit incurred a loss of $13.7 billion in 2022.
