Robert Besser
17 Mar 2023, 13:54 GMT+10
MENLO PARK, California: As the tech industry prepares for a major economic downturn, Facebook-parent company Meta Platforms has announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs this year, making it the first Big Tech company to plan on a second round of mass firings.
Under the proposed cuts, the company will cancel plans to hire 5,000 new staff, shelve lower-priority projects and "flatten" layers of middle management.
The first rounds of mass layoff in autumn saw the company lay off more than 13 percent of its workforce, or 11,000 employees.
Data from tracking site Layoffs.fyi. showed that over the past few months, a forecasted economic downturn due to rising interest rates has caused a series of mass firings in the US, with tech companies leading the way, laying off more than 290,000 workers since the start of 2022.
As well as facing threats to its core digital ads business, Meta is also spending considerably on Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's plans to build the "Metaverse."
This week, Zuckerberg told staff that most of the new cuts would be announced in the next two months.
"For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year, and had the resources to invest in many new products. But last year was a humbling wake-up call. I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years," he said.
Susannah Streeter, Hargreaves Lansdown analyst, noted, "The latest downsizing indicates how desperate the company is to get costs under control as its revenues have fallen amid declining marketing budgets," as reported by Reuters.
"Virtual reality is an expensive business to be in, so while Meta maps out a path through an uncertain landscape, it needs to find efficiencies elsewhere," she added.
With the latest cuts, Meta expects its 2023 expenses to be between $86 billion and $92 billion, lower than the $89 billion to $95 billion previously forecast.
Get a daily dose of Pakistan Telegraph news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Pakistan Telegraph.
More InformationVANDENBERG, California: South Korea successfully launched its inaugural military spy satellite, following North Korea's recent claim of deploying its own ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: The death toll from the eruption of Indonesia's Marapi volcano surged to 22 as rescuers discovered additional climbers ...
In September, Tamir Pardo, who headed the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2011 to ...
HONOLULU, Hawaii: U.S. Navy officials say that it would cost some $1.5 million to salvage a P-8A jet plane that ...
NEW YORK, New York - In a rare move, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has taken a dramatic constitutional step ...
BUKITTINGGI, Indonesia: On December 2, Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, erupted, sending hot ash clouds several miles (kilometers) ...
NEW YORK, New York - AI set the scene for solid gains in technology shares on Thursday. Demand for Alphabet ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: To help reduce car collisions with wildlife and help animals safely cross roadways, the U.S. Transportation Department has ...
BRUSSELS, Belgium: To address power shortages at electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, last week, the European Commission announced plans to ...
BEIJING, China: Falling hog prices, mounting losses and rising debt are putting pressure on the biggest pig breeders in China, ...
NEW YORK, New York - A decline in labor costs as measured by ADP failed to boost U.S. Markets Wednesday."ADP's ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: A U.S. auto safety regulator said this week it is opening an investigation into 73,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in ...