Meta's APAC govt outreach, product marketing and creative among teams impacted by layoffs

Meta's layoff of 11,000 employees has impacted several departments in the Asia Pacific region. A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE on LinkedIn found that employees from departments including politics and government outreach, content design, product marketing, creative strategy, learning and development, news partnerships, employer branding and recruitment marketing, and recruiting were impacted. These were a mix of local and regional roles and it is unclear how many Asia Pacific employees in total have been impacted.

When asked how many employees in the region were impacted yesterday, Meta's spokesperson referred MARKETING-INTERACTIVE to a statement made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured). The 11,000 staff form approximately 13% of Meta's global headcount and was previously described by The Wall Street Journal as "the first broad headcount reductions" to take place in Meta's 18-year history.

Zuckerberg acknowledged in his recent email to employees that this is tough for everyone and said he was especially sorry to those impacted. He explained that when consumer behaviour shifted online and eCommerce surged, many including himself predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way he expected.

"Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that," he said.

In addition to the current layoffs, Meta is also extending its hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023. To further cut costs, it has also shrunk real estate footprint and is thoroughly reviewing its infrastructure spending and focusing on becoming even more efficient with its capacity.

Layoffs at tech firms have been dominating headlines recently, from Meta and Twitter, to Salesforce, YouTube, and Snap. It is unlikely that these layoffs will come to halt anytime soon. Forrester VP, principal analyst J.P. Gownder recently explained that tech companies that have yet to lay off their employees are probably carefully considering whether or not they should make the move.

In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to see more layoffs in the next few months, especially among firms whose fiscal year ends on 31 December, he said. These moves might come as companies face widespread economic concerns, some as a result of rising interest rates while others due to high fuel costs, the war in Ukraine, and even supply chain issues.

That said, Gownder acknowledge that many of the tech workers who were retrenched do have skills that are valuable in other sectors, as many industries look to recruit positions such as software developers, engineers and IT talent. However, departments such as recruiting are now less in demand and Gownder said these workers might have a tougher time finding new positions.

"Top tech talent, who lose their jobs, will find other positions, most likely. People with high skills are still in demand and difficult to hire,” he added.

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