Technology

Meta to begin newest round of mass layoffs

FILE - A car passes Facebook's new Meta logo on a sign at the company headquarters on Oct. 28, 2021, in Menlo Park, Calif. The latest folding smartphones, immersive metaverse experiences, AI-powered chatbot avatars and other eye-catching technology are set to wow visitors at the annual MWC wireless trade fair. The four-day show, also known as Mobile World Congress, kicks off Monday in a vast Barcelona conference center. It's the world’s biggest and most influential meeting for the mobile tech industry. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)

Meta is set to start cutting jobs on Wednesday as part of a round of layoffs it announced in March as the company seeks to eliminate up to 10,000 jobs in a move to cut costs.

The round of cuts on Wednesday affected employees across a number of the company’s products, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to Bloomberg, which cites a memo the outlet reviewed. The cuts will also affect parts of the company’s virtual reality team.

The layoffs stem from an announcement last month that Meta was looking to cut 10,000 jobs, with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg telling employees the company was trying to become more efficient by also not filling 5,000 open roles. 

Meta told The Hill it did not have a comment on the reported layoffs on Wednesday, but it pointed to the announcement from Zuckerberg in March that said the company expected “restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April.” The layoffs also come before what Zuckerberg said is expected cuts to the business department next month. 

The cuts at Meta mark another round of job slashes in the tech industry as the sector deals with a rocky economic climate. The economic situation was exacerbated by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year, a massive firm that widely serviced the tech sector.

Companies like Google, Microsoft, Zoom, PayPal and Spotify have all announced job cuts in recent months, signaling that not even the industry’s giants have been immune from economic woes.