10,000 jobs will be lost at Meta in a second round of layoffs

As the sector prepares for a severe economic downturn, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (META.O) became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs on Tuesday by announcing it would eliminate 10,000 jobs this year.

On hearing the news, Meta stock increased 6%. The much-awaited job cuts are a part of a restructuring that will also "flatten" middle management layers, kill off lower-priority projects, and cancel plans to fill 5,000 openings.

As the sector prepares for a severe economic downturn, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (META.O) became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs on Tuesday by announcing it would eliminate 10,000 jobs this year.

On hearing the news, Meta stock increased 6%. The much-awaited job cuts are a part of a restructuring that will also "flatten" middle management layers, kill off lower-priority projects, and cancel plans to fill 5,000 openings.

One of the most pronounced employee purges in the industry has been at Meta. In addition to struggling with inflation, the business is also dealing with distinct threats to its core digital advertising business and lavishly investing in Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's plans to create a futuristic metaverse.

The majority of the new layoffs, according to Zuckerberg's message to the staff on Tuesday, will be announced in the next two months, though some will last through the end of the year.

"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," Zuckerberg wrote.

"I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years."

Zuckerberg said he planned to further reduce the size of the recruiting team, which was already hard-hit in the fall layoffs. Restructurings in the tech group would be announced in late April and cuts to business groups would come in May.

Meta also will remove multiple layers of management and ask many managers to become individual contributors, while eliminating non-engineering roles, automating more functions and at least partially reversing a commitment to "remote-first" work that Zuckerberg made amid COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.