September 30, 2022
According to a memo to employees from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company plans to further freeze hiring and restructuring in light of the uncertain economic situation.
“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 told employees.
According to Zuckerberg, Meta will reduce the budgets of most teams, and individual teams will have to decide how to handle workforce changes.
In what appears to be the company’s first major budget cut since its inception in 2004, Zuckerberg announced that the company will freeze hiring and restructure some teams to cut costs and refocus priorities, and he predicts that Meta will be smaller in 2023 than it is this year.
Earlier this year, Meta announced that it would slow hiring of some management positions and shift full-time summer interns. Zuckerberg said the hiring freeze is in place because Meta wants to avoid employees joining teams where they don’t expect to have roles next year.
Reuters reported in June that Meta had cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year, joining a long list of technology companies that have been forced to cut staff in recent months as a result of spending cuts in anticipation of a looming recession.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.
