Meta Cuts 10,000 Workers In Largest Layoff This Month (So Far)

On Tuesday, Meta announced it would lay off 10,000 workers over the course of the next three months, marking the largest layoff plan announced by a tech company in March.

The recruiting team has been immediately downsized this month, according to the announcement. In April, the tech departments are expected to announce layoffs, and business teams will face cutbacks in May.

Along with its 10,000-person layoff, Meta will also slash 5,000 roles it was previously hiring for.

This is part of Meta’s dubbed “Year of Efficiency”, one that involves flattening org charts, cutting back on funding low-priority projects and slowing down on hiring.

“It’s well-understood that every layer of a hierarchy adds latency and risk aversion in information flow and decision-making. Every manager typically reviews work and polishes off some rough edges before sending it further up the chain,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. “In our Year of Efficiency, we will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management.”

Meta tops list of biggest layoffs

Meta’s recent announcement means that around 21,000 people have been laid off from the company since we began tracking tech layoffs in 2022. Its last mass layoff was announced in November, when the company laid off 11,000 workers.

This puts Meta at the top of our list of companies who have let go of the most people. The only company that comes close is Amazon, which has laid off 18,000 people over the course of two announcements. In November, the company slashed its workforce by 10,000. In January, it laid off an additional 8,000 people.

In 2022, more than 140,000 people were laid off from the U.S.-based tech sector. The first half of 2023 is expected to be worse — the industry cut around 94,000 employees in the span of two months, which is already more than half of last year’s total number.

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