Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, will lay off 10,000 employees as part of a new round of job cuts and will also close about 5,000 open roles that have yet to be filled, the company's founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said.
The cuts, which have been widely anticipated, will be carried out over the next couple of months and will cover tech, business and recruitment teams.
The move is aimed at improving efficiency at the company, as it grapples with declining advertising revenue amid fears of an economic slowdown.
“Org [organisation] leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, cancelling lower-priority projects and reducing our hiring rates,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a statement on Tuesday.
“With less hiring, I’ve made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our recruiting team. We will let team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted.
“We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May. In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes.”
The timetables for international teams will also look different, he said.
“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” Mr Zuckerberg added.
In November, Meta announced its first mass layoffs amid declining revenue, with roles in the technology sector most affected.
The company laid off 11,000 employees — equal to 13 per cent of its workforce, with Mr Zuckerberg apologising and taking the blame for the company's decline in revenue after disappointing profit in October.
Meta has been hit by a decrease in advertising revenue and has shifted focus to its virtual-reality platform, the metaverse.
Last month, the social media company reported a 55 per cent annual drop in fourth-quarter net profit, underpinned by escalating costs and a decrease in the average price per advertisement.
Meta earned a net profit of more than $4.6 billion in the quarter that ended on December 31.
Its revenue dropped by 4.4 per cent annually to more than $32.1 billion in the three months to December. It was the company’s third straight quarter of declining sales.
The company expects its March quarter total sales to be in the range of $26 billion to $28.5 billion, it said.
Meta had a headcount of 86,482 people as of December 31, 2022, an increase of 20 per cent year on year.
“For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year and had the resources to invest in many new products,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
“But last year was a humbling wake-up call. The world economy changed, competitive pressures grew, and our growth slowed considerably. We scaled back budgets, shrunk our real estate footprint and made the difficult decision to lay off 13 per cent of our workforce.
“At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.
“Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation.
“Given this outlook, we’ll need to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success.”
Since the company reduced its workforce last year, “one surprising result is that many things have gone faster”, the chief executive said.
The social media company also plans to become “flatter” by removing several layers of management. As part of this, many managers will be asked to become individual contributors.
“Our single largest investment is in advancing AI and building it into every one of our products. We have the infrastructure to do this at unprecedented scale,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
Companies across the technology sector have been slashing their workforces after boosting hiring at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid rising interest rates and growing fears of a recession in the US.
Amazon, Microsoft, Google's parent Alphabet, Yahoo and Spotify are among the companies that have cut thousands of jobs in recent months.
US employers announced 77,770 job cuts in February, a fivefold increase on an annual basis, according to Chicago employment company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In the first two months of this year, employers have announced plans to cut 180,713 jobs, the highest January-February total since 2009, the report said.
Technology companies cut the most jobs in February at 21,387, accounting for 28 per cent of the total layoffs.
The industry has slashed 63,216 jobs in the first two months of 2023, compared with 187 cuts announced in the same period last year.
“Certainly, employers are paying attention to rate increase plans from the Fed,” said Andrew Challenger, labour expert and senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Many have been planning for a downturn for months, cutting costs elsewhere. If things continue to cool, layoffs are typically the last piece in company cost-cutting strategies.”
Formula One top 10 drivers' standings after Japan
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 306
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari 247
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes 234
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull 192
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 148
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull 111
7. Sergio Perez, Force India 82
8. Esteban Ocon, Force India 65
9. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso 48
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault 34
England's lowest Test innings
- 45 v Australia in Sydney, January 28, 1887
- 46 v West Indies in Port of Spain, March 25, 1994
- 51 v West Indies in Kingston, February 4, 2009
- 52 v Australia at The Oval, August 14, 1948
- 53 v Australia at Lord's, July 16, 1888
- 58 v New Zealand in Auckland, March 22, 2018
Schedule
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ENovember%2013-14%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%20World%20Youth%20Jiu-Jitsu%20Championship%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENovember%2015-16%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbu%20Dhabi%20World%20Masters%20Jiu-Jitsu%20Championship%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENovember%2017-19%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%20World%20Professional%20Jiu-Jitsu%20Championship%20followed%20by%20the%20Abu%20Dhabi%20World%20Jiu-Jitsu%20Awards%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Men's football draw
Group A: UAE, Spain, South Africa, Jamaica
Group B: Bangladesh, Serbia, Korea
Group C: Bharat, Denmark, Kenya, USA
Group D: Oman, Austria, Rwanda
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Shipping%20and%20banking%20
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'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
Jurassic%20Park
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TECH%20SPECS%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2014%20PLUS
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Also on December 7 to 9, the third edition of the Gulf Car Festival (www.gulfcarfestival.com) will take over Dubai Festival City Mall, a new venue for the event. Last year's festival brought together about 900 cars worth more than Dh300 million from across the Emirates and wider Gulf region – and that first figure is set to swell by several hundred this time around, with between 1,000 and 1,200 cars expected. The first day is themed around American muscle; the second centres on supercars, exotics, European cars and classics; and the final day will major in JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars, tuned vehicles and trucks. Individuals and car clubs can register their vehicles, although the festival isn’t all static displays, with stunt drifting, a rev battle, car pulls and a burnout competition.
UAE%20medallists%20at%20Asian%20Games%202023
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The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
