Meta to Freeze Hiring, Cut Jobs and Spending Across Teams: Report

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned employees of a hiring freeze and impending corporate restructuring during a weekly Q&A session on Thursday — reports Bloomberg.

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company will cut costs and, for the first time, jobs amidst economic challenges and a notable downturn in revenue. Meta this year reported its first-ever yearly decline in revenue for the second quarter.

According to a person who attended the Q&A session, Meta has instituted a hiring freeze. Zuckerberg added that the company plans to slash budgets across most teams — even those that are growing.

As for restructuring, Zuckerberg said individual teams will figure out how to proceed. Options will include not filling out some vacancies when employees depart, transferring workers to other teams, and working to “manage out people who aren’t succeeding.”

“I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, but from what we’re seeing it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively,” Zuckerberg said during the meeting.

The Meta CEO previously explained that a hiring freeze is necessary because “we want to make sure we’re not adding people to teams where we don’t expect to have roles next year.”

Meta had more than 83,500 employees as of June 30, hiring 5,700 new workers in the second quarter. Zuckerberg added that Meta could be a “somewhat smaller” organization by the end of 2023.

“For the first 18 years of the company, we basically grew quickly basically every year, and then more recently our revenue has been flat to slightly down for the first time,” he told staff.

Moving forward, Meta will be more cautious with resource allocation. The company’s priorities currently include its TikTok competitor, Reels, and Zuckerberg’s fabled “metaverse.”

Earlier this year, Meta pulled the plug on developing an Apple Watch competitor as a cost-cutting measure. Now, it looks like more projects could get the axe.