Facebook parent meta could begin large-scale layoffs

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Meta, Facebook’s parent company, could begin large-scale layoffs as early as Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A report obtained by the WSJ stated that the layoffs are expected to impact thousands of employees. The move would also mark the first major workforce reduction in the company’s history.

At the end of September, Meta reported that it had more than 87,000 employees.

During the company’s earnings call last month, Mark Zuckerberg said, “In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas. So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year.”

Zuckerberg added that the company expected to end the new year “as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”

Going forward, Meta will focus on its AI discovery engine that powers its “Reels” feature and other recommendation experiences, ads and business messaging platforms and future plans for the Metaverse.

Meta shares have plummeted 73 percent this year, falling to their lowest since early 2016.

It’s a turbulent time in the tech world. Just last week, Twitter cut close to 3,700 people via email as a way to slash costs following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition, which closed in late October. Many employees learned they were laid off after their access to company-wide systems, such as their work email and Slack, were revoked.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that the company is reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return.

Some of those being asked to return were laid off by mistake. According to Bloomberg, others have the needed work and experience to build new features Musk has planned for the company.