Meta plans to begin mass layoffs this week, cutting its workforce of several thousand employees, the the Wall Street newspaper reported Sunday. An announcement could come as early as Wednesday, the Journal reported, citing unidentified sources familiar with the company’s plans.
The layoffs, the first large-scale workforce reduction in the company’s 18-year history, may be the biggest in a recent wave of tech job cuts, according to the Journal. The Facebook parent reportedly tried to cut costs by at least 10% in the coming months in September.
Efforts to cut costs show that companies, which make money by selling ads, are trying to curb spending after the tech industry grew rapidly during the pandemic. The social media giant currently employs around 87,000 people.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg signaled during the company’s third quarter earnings call that job cuts may be imminent.
“In 2023, we will focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas,” said Zuckerberg. “So it means that some teams will grow significantly, but most of the other teams will remain stable or shrink in the next year.
“Overall, we plan to end 2023 with roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization, than we are today,” he said.
Meta shares have lost 73% since the beginning of the year.
Other tech companies have resorted to layoffs. Last week, Twitter has launched layoffs this may have affected up to half of the company’s 3,700 employees. Snap, the parent company of the Snapchat instant messaging app, said in August that it was cutting about 20% of its staff.
A Facebook representative declined to comment.
