Meta lays off 10,000 employees in the second round of job cuts – Nationally

Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after 11,000 workers were let go, the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs.

“We expect to reduce our team by approximately 10,000 people and close approximately 5,000 additional open roles that we have not yet filled,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to staff.

The layoffs are part of a broader restructuring at Meta that will see the company flatten its organizational structure, cut lower-priority projects and reduce its staffing levels as part of the move. The news sent Meta’s shares up two percent in premarket trading.

The move underscores Zuckerberg’s push to turn 2023 into the “year of efficiency” with a promised cost reduction of $5 billion in spending to between $89 billion and $95 billion.

A worsening economy has led to a series of mass layoffs in corporate America: from Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to big tech companies including Amazon.com and Microsoft.

The tech industry has laid off more than 280,000 workers since the start of 2022, with about 40 percent of those coming this year, according to layoffs that track layoffs.

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Meta, which is pouring billions of dollars into building the futuristic metaverse, has struggled with a post-pandemic slump in ad spending from companies facing high inflation and rising interest rates.

Meta’s move in November to cut its workforce by 13 percent marked the first mass layoffs in its 18-year history. Its workforce was 86,482 at the end of 2022, up 20 percent from a year ago.