By John Ikani
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, announced on Tuesday that it will be cutting jobs as part of its “year of efficiency”.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the company will be shedding 10,000 jobs in the next few months, with the target being middle management.
An additional 5,000 positions will remain unfilled.
This move follows a previous cut of 11,000 jobs announced by the company in November of last year, which led to similar job cuts across tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
Zuckerberg in an email to employees acknowledged that “the job cuts will be challenging, as it will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have contributed to the company’s success.”
The recruitment department will be the first to be affected, with subsequent cuts expected to affect tech and business departments in the coming months.
In some cases, the changes may take until the end of the year to complete.
The move towards efficiency comes after a rough 2022 for Meta, which saw a souring economic climate and Apple’s data privacy changes that impacted the company’s ad personalization efforts.
As a result, the company plans to focus on making the organization a stronger and more nimble entity.
Despite Meta’s recent struggles, it is making a huge gamble on the metaverse, the world of virtual reality that the company believes will be the next online frontier.
However, Meta needs to downplay its farfetched and costly metaverse ambitions and highlight the work it’s doing in the near term to improve its core services.
In addition to the job cuts, Meta’s CEO wants to make the organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management.
Zuckerberg explained that running a more tightly organized operation has led to faster progress and greater productivity.
Investors seem satisfied with Zuckerberg’s pledge to run a leaner company, with Meta’s share price increasing by almost six percent after the announcement of the latest job cuts.
