According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook parent firm Meta could announce large-scale layoffs as soon as next week. According to the outlet, the corporation plans to lay off “tens of thousands” of workers, with an announcement expected as soon as Wednesday. Meta now employs about 87,000 people. The layoffs could be the largest done by a digital business this year, topping Twitter’s layoffs on Friday. The layoffs would also be the first significant restructuring in Meta’s history.
Meta did not respond. A spokesman cited a comment made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the company’s recent third-quarter results call. “In 2023, we will concentrate our spending on a few high-priority growth areas.” So, while some teams will grow significantly, the majority of other teams will remain flat or shrink over the next year,” he explained. “In overall, we plan to end 2023 as around the same size, if not somewhat smaller, than we are today.”
According to The Journal, Meta expanded significantly during the first two years of the coronavirus epidemic, gaining over 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021. The company’s recruiting drive continued through the first nine months of 2022 when it hired an additional 15,344 people. While the corporation benefited greatly from the outbreak, its fortunes have shifted in recent months. The company announced its first-ever revenue decline in July. The company has blamed its recent difficulties on TikTok’s intense competition and the rollout of Apple’s divisive App Tracking Transparency feature.
Simultaneously, Mark Zuckerberg’s bid for the Metaverse has so far failed to generate new money for the corporation while costing it dearly. Meta has spent $15 billion to make virtual and augmented reality mainstream since the beginning of 2021, with little result. In 2023, the business expects to lose even more money on the project.
