Meta to layoff 10% of its workforce to improve operational efficiency

As part of a broader push to improve operational efficiency and balance its significant investments in artificial intelligence, Meta Platforms is planning to reduce its workforce by about 10% which is around 8,000 employees.  

The layoffs, announced in an internal memo, are scheduled for May 20. The company also announced that it will not hire workers for 6,000 open roles that it had intended to fill.

The move comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to ramp up spending on AI talent and infrastructure, including the development of advanced large language models and chatbot technologies. Meta has already signaled record capital expenditure for the year and has entered into several multibillion-dollar partnerships to strengthen its AI capabilities. Internally, employees are also being encouraged to adopt AI tools and agents to enhance productivity, particularly in areas like coding.

The Chief People Officer, Janelle Gale in the memo wrote that the workforce reduction is aimed at streamlining operations while accommodating the company’s growing AI investments. “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” she wrote in the note.

Meta employees have spent much of the year fretting about job cuts, which already hit the Reality Labs division and other teams. Gale said that the company was announcing the layoffs early since details of the plan had already leaked.

“I know this is unwelcome news and confirming this puts everyone in an uneasy state, but we feel this is the best path forward, given the circumstances,” Gale wrote.

Meta had almost 79,000 employees at the start of the year. The company is scheduled to report first quarter earnings next week.