NEW YORK, May 24 (Portal) – Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) began implementing the final phase of a three-part round of layoffs on Wednesday under a plan announced in March to ax 10,000 jobs, according to a source familiar with the matter .
Earlier this year, Meta became the first big tech to announce a second round of mass layoffs after smashing the door on more than 11,000 employees in the fall. The cuts brought the company’s workforce down to where it was in around mid-2021, after a hiring wave had doubled the workforce since 2020.
Several employees who work in teams including marketing, recruiting, engineering and corporate communications announced their layoffs on LinkedIn on Wednesday.
Meta shares rose 0.5% in a generally weaker market. Its value has more than doubled this year and is among the top performers in the S&P 500 Index (.SPX) thanks to cost-cutting efforts and Meta’s focus on artificial intelligence.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in March that the bulk of the layoffs in the company’s second round will come in three “moments” over several months, mostly ending in May. After that, some smaller rounds could continue, he said.
Morning commutes stream past the Meta sign in front of the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022. Portal/Peter DaSilva
Overall, the cuts hit non-technical roles hardest, strengthening the primacy of those who code at Meta. Zuckerberg vowed in March to “significantly” restructure business teams and return to a “more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles.”
Even with the cuts specifically targeting technology teams, the company has cut non-technical roles like content design and user experience research the most, according to executives speaking at a company meeting afterwards.
About 4,000 employees lost their jobs in April’s layoffs, Zuckerberg said during the town hall meeting, following minor setbacks in recruiting teams in March.
The social media company said on Wednesday that the latest cuts are expected to affect around 490 staff at its international headquarters in Dublin, or almost 20% of its Irish workforce.
Meta’s layoffs followed months of slowing revenue growth due to high inflation and a slowdown in digital advertising due to the pandemic e-commerce boom.
The company has also poured billions of dollars into its Metaverse-focused Reality Labs unit, which lost $13.7 billion in 2022, and a project to revamp its infrastructure to support artificial intelligence work .
Reporting by Katie Paul in New York; Edited by Kenneth Li and Mark Porter
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