Meta lays off employees at WhatsApp and Instagram, among others
Meta is continuing its group-wide restructuring measures. WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs are affected by redundancies.
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Meta began laying off some employees on Wednesday. This was reported by US media, including tech magazine The Verge, on Thursday. According to the report, teams from WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs are affected. The redundancies are said to be part of the restructuring measures within the Group. Meta is remaining silent on exactly how many employees have been made redundant.
Resources are to be reorganized in order to be "aligned with the long-term strategic goals and location strategy", according to The Verge from Meta. To this end, some teams will be moved to other locations and some employees will be given new positions. Some positions will also be eliminated. However, Meta is endeavoring to find other jobs for those affected.
New positions and severance payments
Some of the employees who have now been made redundant have spoken out on social media. Some of them have been offered new positions and contracts, while others have been offered severance pay. Several employees are said to have accepted the severance packages and are now looking for a job.
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Employees in the Group's recruiting and legal departments are also said to have been made redundant. However, Meta denied this according to Techcrunch. No redundancies have been announced in the Threads, Recruiting and Legal departments.
The fact that jobs are being cut at Meta is nothing new. There had already been several job cuts at Reality Labs in early 2024. Before that, in 2022, Meta had initially laid off 11,000 employees across the Group. This was due to an overly optimistic growth forecast for Meta following the Covid pandemic. Another wave of mass redundancies then followed in 2023. Around 10,000 Meta employees were made redundant. At the time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had declared a "year of efficiency" to make the company fit for the future. However, it is also assumed that big tech companies had been "overhiring" for years, i.e. hiring too many people for whom there was actually no need. One reason for this was to retain skilled workers and not make them available to the market.
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