Meta to layoff 5% of workforce today

Facebook owner, Meta is set to to carry out an expected company-wide layoffs of 5% of its workforce (almost 4,000 employees) today. According to memos seen by Reuters on Friday, the job cuts will enable the company to focus on AI and improve efficiency.

According to the memo, notices will go out to employees losing their jobs starting at 5 a.m. local time on Monday in most countries, including in the U.S., according to one of the posts, authored by Meta’s Head of People Janelle Gale.

It also said that employees in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands will be exempt from the cuts “due to local regulations,” while those in more than a dozen other countries across Europe, Asia and Africa will receive their notifications between February 11 and February 18.

Unlike previous company-wide layoffs, Meta will keep its offices open today and will not issue any updates providing further details on the decisions, Gale said in her post. A separate memo, posted by VP of Engineering for Monetization Peng Fan on Friday, asked staffers to assist with an expedited hiring process for machine learning engineers and other “business critical” engineering roles.

Layoffs in the technology sector started as a consequence of overhiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, companies rapidly expanded their workforces to meet the soaring demand for digital products and services. However, as the lockdown ended and demand for these products waned, many firms found they had more employees than needed, which led to significant job cuts.

Last year alone, over 260,000 tech workers worldwide lost their jobs.

While Meta remained profitable through recent periods of heavy hiring and big spending, the company is now racing to keep up with rivals in the generative AI race. Analysts believe that this requires billions of dollars in infrastructure and related investment. That’s likely putting pressure on Meta to seek cost-savings elsewhere.

Recall that Zuckerberg has been at the forefront of this, announcing a “Year of Efficiency” in 2023 that has continued through last year and into 2025. This is part of a broader trend by big tech companies to achieve leaner spending and efficiency, after a hiring spree during the pandemic.

Some experts predict that job losses may continue to escalate in the coming months as businesses struggle financially due to these high rates, potentially pushing the unemployment rate to 5% by the end of the year.

This is especially because advancements in automation and AI technologies are making certain roles become redundant, prompting companies to restructure and downsize their teams accordingly.

How the layoff may work

According to internal guidance obtained by BI last month, the job cuts are designed to target employees who receive “Met Some” or “Did Not Meet” ratings, the bottom two categories in Meta’s assessment system, in their performance reviews. According to internal guidance obtained by BI last month, managers must identify 12% to 15% of employees eligible for these ratings.

Meta aims to reach 10% “non-regrettable attrition” by combining these cuts with previous departures. For example, if a team had 5% attrition in 2024, managers would need to identify another 7% to 10% of their employees for the bottom ratings to meet the total target.

Affected employees will be notified through their work and personal email addresses and will lose access to company systems within an hour of being informed. They will receive severance package information in the same email.

The notifications will be staggered across time zones, with employees in Asia Pacific being notified first, followed by Europe, Middle East and Africa, and finally North and Latin America. Also, the company is merging its Facebook and Messenger teams under Facebook chief Tom Alison, while Messenger head Loredana Crisan will move to the generative AI group, according to The Information.

Similarly, Meta’s Reality Labs division, which has lost nearly $60 billion since 2020, is being more tightly integrated with Meta’s main business.

One Meta employee told BI that forcing managers to place team members into bottom categories for job cuts has spread anxiety through management ranks as well as rank-and-file workers.

Read also: Meta can be sued over moderator layoffs, Kenya court rules