Digital Desk: Meta, the parent
company of social media network Facebook, is to start a significant round of
layoffs this week. It's unclear at this time how many employees would be laid
off and in which areas.
At
the end of September, Meta claimed having over 87,000 workers worldwide working
across its many platforms, an increase of 28% from the previous year. According
to the article, firm managers have already informed their employees to postpone
any unnecessary travel starting this week.
It
is significant to note in this context that the anticipated job layoffs would
be the first significant headcount decrease in the 18-year history of the
social media powerhouse. Additionally, it is less severe in terms of proportion
than the layoffs at Elon Musk-owned Twitter last week, which impacted nearly
50% of the workforce.
Since
struggling financially for some months, Meta has been progressively reducing
expenses. The Silicon Valley giant currently has the worst performance in the
S&P 500 in 2022 after Meta shares fell 73% this year, to their lowest level
since early 2016.
The
company Meta, which controls Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger, has
invested a sizable sum of money into the metaverse's developing technology.
CEO
Mark Zuckerberg stated last month during the company's earnings call that
"in 2023, we're going to focus our investments on a limited handful of
high priority growth areas. This indicates that while most other clubs will
remain stagnant or contract during the upcoming year, some teams will
experience considerable growth. Overall, we anticipate being either about the
same size or even a little bit smaller than we are now by the end of 2023.
Because
of the likelihood that the global economy may enter a recession as a result of
rising inflation and higher interest rates, many prominent technology
companies, including Microsoft, Twitter Inc., and Snap, have reduced their
workforces and slowed hiring in recent months.
As more companies shifted to an online method of operation during
the Covid-19 outbreak, Meta went on a hiring rampage. In 2020 and 2021
combined, it hired more than 27,000 people, and in the first nine months of
this year, it hired an additional 15,344 people.
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