As part of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg referred to as the company’s “year of efficiency,” Facebook owner Meta announced a new round of layoffs on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. This occurs while layoffs in the American IT sector continue.
Zuckerberg informed the workforce via email that Meta would be cutting 10,000 jobs over the next months, with an emphasis on middle management, and that 5,000 additional positions would stay vacant.
These layoffs follow the company’s November announcement that it would be shedding 11,000 positions.
Zuckerberg said, “This will be tough, and there’s no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success.”
Read also: Meta is laying off more than 11,000 employees
The Impact of the Meta’s action
As soon as the company officially puts a stop to the hiring frenzy that occurred when big tech-enhanced operations met the high requirements during the coronavirus pandemic, the recruitment department of Meta will be the first to suffer the consequences.
In the following months, both the business and technology departments will be impacted, as well as “in a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes,” Zuckerberg said.
After telling analysts in January that the company’s “management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency'” and that he would devote himself to making the company “a stronger and more nimble organization,” Mark Zuckerberg issued a stern warning that the company was in for more difficult times.
Reviewing the Termination of last year
Meta had a difficult 2022 as a result of a deteriorating economic climate, which compelled advertisers to reduce their spending on marketing, and Apple’s changes to its data privacy policies, which reduced the amount of room available for the personalization of advertisements.
The company is also facing criticism for placing a significant wager on the metaverse, which refers to the realm of virtual reality and is seen by Meta as the subsequent frontier of online expansion.
The issues that occurred in the previous year caused the share price of the company to drop by an astounding two-thirds over the course of 12 months; however, the share price has recovered in 2023, and investors are pleased with Zuckerberg’s pledge to run a leaner company.
After the announcement of the most recent round of layoffs, the share price of Meta shot up by an additional 5 percent.
The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Meta have stated that he “will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management,” which indicates that a large number of managers will be required to become “individual contributors.”
According to Zuckerberg, he was pleasantly surprised by the benefits of operating a more tightly organized operation in which “many things have gone faster” as a result of the elimination of projects with a lower priority.
He remarked, “A leaner org (sic) will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling.”
It can’t be predicted that more workers will lose their jobs with Meta. It is however, clear that demand for human labour is declining.