Meta to reportedly begin layoffs involving 'many thousands' of staff

Meta is reportedly kickstarting large-scale layoffs this week, being the next company in the tech scene to cut its workforce. According to The Wall Street Journal, "many thousands of employees" are predicted to be impacted by the job cuts and Meta is also expected to make an announcement as soon as 9 November.

Meta employees have already been informed to cancel non-essential travel beginning this week. The tech giant had over 87,000 employees at the end of September, WSJ said, and the recent reported job cuts are said to be "the first broad headcount reductions" to take place in its 18-year history. Meanwhile, in September, the tech giant reportedly had plans to reduce expenses by at least 10% in the coming months, in part through workforce reductions, WSJ said.

Meta's spokesperson referred MARKETING-INTERACTIVE to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's (pictured) statement made during its Q3 2022 earnings about the company focusing its investments on "a small number of high priority growth areas" next year.

He previously said": "So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today."

Like its tech counterparts, Meta set out on a hiring spree during the pandemic because more consumers were shifting online as part of the new normal. According to WSJ, it brought on board over 27,000 employees in the last two years. It also added 15,344 employees in the first nine months of 2022.

Nonetheless, the company's stock has dipped by more than 70% this year. Last month, the company's net income for Q3 2022 slid 52% to US$4.4 billion, dipping below estimates of US$5 billion. Its revenue also dipped 4% to US$27.71 billion, compared to 1% last year. Meanwhile, on the leadership front, Meta's India chief Ajit Mohan left last week to join Snap as APAC president. He will report into COO Jerry Hunter and is responsible for offering in-market leadership, leading cross-functional efforts overseeing local operations, and leading Snap's go-to-market strategy.

News of impending job cuts at Meta comes amidst the chatter surrounding mass layoffs at Twitter following Elon Musk's takeover. The Asia Pacific communications team at Twitter was among the departments impacted and Twitter's CMO Leslie Berland and its chief customer officer Sarah Personette also resigned last week. Over the past few months, companies including foodpanda, Carsome, Netflix, HappyFresh, Garena, and Shopee also had to trim their workforce too.

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