Parent Meta Plans Massive Cuts, Report Says

By Shiyin Chen

Meta Platforms Inc. will begin layoffs this week that will affect thousands of employees, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

Job cuts at Facebook’s parent company could take place as early as Wednesday, the newspaper said. The company has already told employees to cancel non-essential business trips starting this week, according to reports.

The paper said that while the company’s 87,000 job cuts may be a relatively small percentage, the number of unemployed could be the largest total for a tech company this year. We increased our employment during the pandemic, adding 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021, and an additional 15,344 employees in the first nine months of this year.

In September, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg outlined plans to reorganize teams and cut headcount for the first time after Facebook and Instagram’s parent company’s growth slowed sharply. Zuckerberg says Meta is likely to be smaller in 2023 than he is this year.

The job cuts come as Meta is struggling with mounting losses and is investing heavily in developing its Metaverse business. The company’s stock has fallen 73% this year.

The cuts will add to the already mounting job losses in Silicon Valley. Twitter Inc. cut about 3,700 positions last week after Elon Musk bought the social media platform for his $44 billion. Others have announced plans to cut staff or include ride-hailing company Lyft and hard drive maker Seagate Technology Holdings.

A spokeswoman for Meta declined to comment to the journal.

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