- Meta wants to cut 5% of its workforce
- CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants low performers out and new talent in
- The cuts, with general attrition, will reduce headcount by around 10% this year
Meta plans to cut 5% of its workforce, according to an internal memo CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared with employees and obtained by Bloomberg.
Figures put Meta’s current workforce at about 72,500, meaning the layoffs will affect at least 3,600 of the company’s “low performers.”
“We typically manage people who don’t meet expectations over the course of a year, but now we’ll be making more substantial performance-based cuts during this cycle,” Zuckerberg said in the memo.
‘It will be an intense year’
“I have decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out of low performers faster,” Zuckerberg said, adding that the company would fill the open roles through 2025.
Those to be removed from the company in the US are expected to be notified on February 10 and will be given “generous severance,” according to Zuckerberg, with overseas workers likely to be notified at a later date. Meta has cut about 21,000 employees between 2022 and 2023, with Zuckerberg cutting 10,000 of those jobs during the company’s “efficiency year” in ’23.
For this year, Meta’s headcount is expected to decrease by 10% as a result of current cuts and attrition. Going forward, the company plans to focus heavily on artificial intelligence, smart glasses and its social media platforms, with Zuckerberg likely poised to fill the impending gap in the market caused by TikTok’s upcoming ban in the US on January 19.
Zuckerberg also recently announced that Meta would discontinue its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and that Facebook and Instagram would switch from “politically biased” fact-checking services to a community-based note system similar to Twitter (now known as X).
