Amid deteriorating economic conditions, the tech lay-offs continue, with Meta set to cull another 10,000 roles over the coming months as it continues to work towards ‘improving organizational efficiency’, thus reducing costs. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the new round of lay-offs, which comes after the company already cut 11,000 roles – or 13% of its workforce – back in November.
“Over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates. With less hiring, I’ve made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our recruiting team. We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May.”
Slashes
This total shift will see Meta cut another 10,000 jobs and cancel 5,000 positions that have not yet been filled in the organization. It’s a significant reduction, which, as Zuckerberg notes, will impact various projects within the company. Already, the company has canceled its eCommerce push, in line with weaker demand post-pandemic, and this is on top of all the other project scrapings Meta has already enacted.
The changes are part of Meta’s ‘Year of Efficiency’ push, which Zuckerberg outlined as part of Meta’s Q4 update last month. Within that, Zuck also outlined the company’s key areas of focus:
Improving its AI discovery tools to maximize engagement in its apps.
Adding new business messaging features to monetize the user shift towards messaging, and away from social apps.
Re-building its ad tools to reduce reliance on user data.
Continued development of AR, VR, and the metaverse, with a focus on the future.
Meta’s now making AI a bigger focus, given the broader hype around the emerging tech, while the Metaverse, which is still costing billions in development each year, remains the company’s north star and future priority. That means that anything outside of these key areas is likely up for review, and Meta will continue to evaluate its projects to ensure it can maximize cost benefits.
Zuckerberg notes that, after restructuring, Meta will eventually look to resume hiring later in the year, in a more focused and effective way. In short, it’s a tough time to be in the tech sector, amid all of the turmoil surrounding the global economy, and the major shifts in advertising spending. With Twitter essentially being the #1 employee-firing business right now, other tech giants are also reviewing their hiring process, either cutting roles or scaling back projects significantly.
The Wrap
The whole conflict in Ukraine, along with broader concerns about the market, has squeezed the industry like never before, which will make innovation increasingly difficult, potentially leading to a prolonged period of delayed change. With so many former big tech staff now re-assessing their future plans, it could also spark new opportunities for competitor apps. This could well become an inflection point that leads to the next stage of digital connection.
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