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Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced the company is laying off an additional 10,000 workers to hedge against economic instability that could last for “many years.”
The move is part of a number of steps, including slowing hiring and canceling some projects, that Meta is taking to cut costs and improve financial performance during what Zuckerberg branded its “Year of Efficiency.”
Zuckerburg warns “this will be tough”
“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” Zuckerberg said in his address to workers. He later stated the layoffs will be conducted “over the next couple of months.”
Recruiting team members will know by tomorrow whether or not they still have jobs, other reports have some employees being released as of Tuesday’s announcement.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will announce layoffs in its tech groups in late April, and across its business teams toward the end of May. The company will also scrap plans to hire an additional 5,000 workers to fill open roles.
According to CBS News, the latest round of layoffs comes after the company cut about 11,000 jobs — or 13% of Meta’s workforce — in November.
At its peak in 2022, Meta employed 87,000 full-time workers.
Former Black tech employee shares what it’s like to be unexpectedly fired
On January 17, a TikTok and Instagram video featuring the point of view of a fired ‘token BLK girl,’ was posted and has since went viral.
In the raw video, she painfully describes the mental hoops and hurdles experienced throughout her time in corporate spaces as the only Black woman in the room.
While Tech companies continue to slash thousands of jobs, the unnamed woman’s video is an unfortunate reminder that each lost job has a person’s livelihood attached to it.
Tech companies have cut over 275,000 jobs in one year
From Meta to DocuSign to Twilio, tech companies have laid off more than 275,000 workers since last year, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks such announcements.
Many, such as Zoom Video Communications Inc.—which alone cut about 1,300 jobs—were rewarded with significant increases in their share prices. Zoom’s stock jumped nearly 10% on the day of its layoff announcement.
“Removing jobs” is one of the ways Meta is executing on its goal of becoming more efficient, according to the memo. However, according to TIME, research shows that such layoffs are often a net negative drag on companies’ financial performance over time. They don’t consistently make firms more profitable, and employee engagement and customer service generally suffer.