Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta intends to cut around 5% of its staff. The layoffs will focus on “low-performers” and will be followed up by new hiring to replace outgoing employees.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the news through an internal memo sent to the staff and later shared by Bloomberg News.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
According to the memo, the affected employees in the United States will be informed by early February while international employees will be notified at a later date.
Meta employs roughly 72,000 workers, meaning that around 3,600 people are set to be laid off. According to Zuckerberg, the outgoing employees will receive “generous” severance.
The layoffs are part of the company’s efforts to improve efficiency and have the “best people” in anticipation of an “intense year” that will see Meta place an even bigger focus on projects related to artificial intelligence.
Meta’s stock continued this week’s slide on Tuesday, dropping by 2.31% to close at $594.25 per share.