Is Facebook preparing to fire 12,000?

There are reports of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, quietly laying off people. The Company is reportedly aiming to cut down 15 per cent of its workforce. That means, about 12,000 employees may lose their jobs across teams.

Last month, Bloomberg had reported that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, had communicated to the workforce that he intends to restructure certain groups in the social-media company and freeze hiring. He had left it to the individual teams to decide how they would want to plan changes in team size and work with their limited budgets. Therefore, employees at Facebook have been mentally preparing themselves for layoffs.

The objective was to cut costs and budgets across the organisation. In the recent past, Zuckerberg had hinted that the Company and the tech space, in general, is going through one of the worst recessions, and therefore, there was a need to slow hiring.

Now, media reports say that silent layoffs are happening at Meta; and that the employees who may appear to be moving on are actually being asked to leave basis their performance.

Facebook employees are bracing for layoffs for months since the social networking giant announced a hiring freeze.

The price of Meta shares that had touched $380 per share once has now plunged 60 per cent.

Considering that Zuckerberg had already indicated that the headcount would be reduced over the year, news of layoffs shouldn’t come as a shock. The Company had hinted that focus and energy would be shifted to other areas.