As Meta’s hard time continues unabated, the social media behemoth is desperately seeking measures to ameliorate both user and revenue growth crisis.
According to a report by Insider, Meta is reportedly conducting ‘quiet layoffs’ at Facebook that may lead to thousands of job cuts — at least 12,000 or about 15% of its workforce. The layoff, which is targeted at underperforming workers, is under process overseen by the company’s senior executives.
Insider reported, quoting comments by several employees, that as much as 15% of the workforce could be cut within the next few weeks. This means that some 12,000 employees could be out of jobs soon.
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“It might look like they are moving on, but the reality is they are being forced out,” the employee told Insider.
The development came following Meta’s unprecedented economic downturn early this year that saw its value dropped more than half. The company’s stock price has nosedived 60% from its peak of nearly $380 since last year.
Insider reported that Facebook employees have been bracing for layoffs for months since the social networking giant announced a hiring freeze.
Though hiring freezes became common among tech companies earlier this year following growing global inflation, Facebook is one of the hardest hit. The social media company has had to deal with a major drop in the number of users who are believed to be joining the high-flying short-form video app TikTok.
According to the Insider’s report, Meta, seeing its value plunging, had planned early enough to cut the size of its workforce to the barest minimum.
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that the social network is freezing hiring across the board, warning that more layoffs are in the pipeline.
According to reports, Zuckerberg made these comments during an internal call to employees.
Zuckerberg mentioned during the last Meta earnings call that “Our plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas.”
In May, Zuckerberg announced a hiring freeze affecting certain segments of Meta. However, he has now expanded the hiring freeze across departments and verticals.
Facebook’s parent company Meta is currently reducing staff to cut costs amid the economic downturn, apparently putting some of them on traditional 30 to 60 days “lists” to find a new role within the company or leave.
Meta has a “long practice” where employees whose roles are eliminated are subject to termination if they can’t find a new job internally within a month.
As Big Tech companies lay off employees and freeze new hirings, Zuckerberg said in July that the company’s plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year.
Admitting that the social network has entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business, Zuckerberg said that many “teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company”.
Meta had earlier this year, laid out a recovery plan that includes shifting to short-form videos and divestment to metaverse. However, the plan is yielding no positive results yet, and Zuckerberg is said to have invested more than $10 billion on the metaverse idea.