Meta Platforms Inc, the parent firm of Facebook, is planning another fresh round of job cuts in bid to reorganise and downsize. The fresh layoff could affect thousands of employees, citing a report by Washington Post, news agency Reuters reported on Wednesday. The US-based social media giant, however, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Meta last year said it will let go of 13 per cent of its workforce, or more than 11,000 employees, as it grappled with soaring costs and a weak advertising market.
According to the Reuters’ report, Meta plans to push some leaders into lower-level roles without direct reports, flattening the layers of management between top boss Mark Zuckerberg and the company's interns. Last year's layoffs were the first in Meta's 18-year history.
Other tech firms have cut thousands of jobs, including Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft Corp, and Snap Inc.Meta aggressively hired during the pandemic to meet a surge in social media usage by stuck-at-home consumers. But business suffered in 2022 as advertisers and consumers pull the plug on spending in the face of soaring costs and rapidly rising interest rates. Meta, once worth more than $1 trillion, is now valued at $446 billion.
Shares lost 1.2 per cent on Wednesday. Last year the company said it would also reduce office space, lower discretionary spending and extend a hiring freeze into 2023 to rein in expenses. More than 100,000 layoffs were announced at US companies in January, led by technology companies, according to a report from employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
On the other hand, Elon Musk is still laying off Twitter employees as dozens of workers across sales and engineering departments were laid off last week, including one of Musk's direct reporting executive who was managing engineering for Twitter's ads business. It means that the new Twitter CEO has done at least three rounds of layoffs, according to news reports.