Mark Zuckerberg announces 10,000 layoffs at Meta

Meta will be laying off 10,000 workers in the coming months, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailing the company’s plans for 2023 on Facebook.

In a Facebook post published yesterday (March 14), Zuckerberg shared an update that had already been issued to Meta employees.

In the post, Zuckerberg announced that Meta – formerly known as Facebook – will be laying off “around 10,000 people” and closing 5,000 roles that were yet to be filled.

The CEO added that over the next couple of months, Meta will be cancelling lower-priority projects, reducing its hiring rates and announcing staggered layoffs. Zuckerberg explained that recruiting team members will be the first to be impacted by layoffs, followed by tech groups in April and business groups in late May.

“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” said the Facebook creator. “It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success. They’ve dedicated themselves to our mission and I’m personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.”

“As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs — and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long-term vision,” he added.

Zuckerberg went on to say that 2022 was “a humbling wake-up call” for Meta and the economy, and acknowledged that lower budgets and growth may “continue for many years”.

In November 2022, Meta announced that it was laying off 11,000 workers, which totalled 13 per cent of its workforce.

Last month, the company reported that its metaverse division lost £3.5billion in just three months – a billion more than it lost in April 2022.