Meta plans more job cuts with thousands to be affected, report says

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is planning another round of job cuts, with “thousands” of workers expected to be affected, a report has shown.

The US tech major is planning to push some managers into lower-level roles, flattening the layers of management between Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s interns, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed source.

The company is also considering slashing some projects and jobs at several divisions around the world, the report said.

The cuts will likely be carried out in the coming months, it added.

In November, Meta announced its first-ever mass layoffs amid declining revenue, with roles in the technology sector most affected.

The company laid off 11,000 employees — equivalent to 13 per cent of its workforce, with Mr Zuckerberg apologising and taking the blame for the company's decline in revenue after disappointing earnings in October.

“I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team … we are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through the first quarter,” Mr Zuckerberg said at the time.

The latest cuts are expected to “disproportionately affect” workers in non-engineering roles, The Washington Post report said.

This month, the 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.

The California-based company earned a net profit of more than $4.6 billion in the quarter that ended on December 31.

The social media company’s revenue dropped nearly 4.4 per cent annually to more than $32.1 billion in the three months to December, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $31.5 billion. It was the company’s third straight quarter of declining sales.

Meta, which employs 86,482 people, expects its March quarter total sales to be in the range of $26 billion to $28.5 billion, it said.

The company has been seeking new avenues to boost its earnings.

On Sunday, Meta said it will launch a paid subscription service starting at $11.99 a month allowing users to verify their accounts.

Meta Verified, which will be introduced in Australia and New Zealand this week, will let users “verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support”, Mr Zuckerberg said.

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” he said.

Companies across the technology sector have been slashing their workforces after boosting hiring at the height of the Covid pandemic, amid rising interest rates and growing fears of a recession in US.

Amazon, Microsoft, Google's parent Alphabet, Yahoo and Spotify are among companies that have cut thousands of jobs in recent months.

While overall, companies in the US cut 363,824 jobs in 2022 — 13 per cent more than 2021 — the technology sector was the leading job-cutting industry last year, Chicago-based global employment company Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported.

A total of 97,171 jobs were cut in the technology sector last year, a 649 per cent increase from firings in the industry in 2021 — the highest since the so-called dot-com crash that started in 2000, a survey by the company showed.