Facebook owner Meta to cut headcount for first time amid slow ad revenue growth and dour economic outlook
- Mark Zuckerberg outlined plans to reduce headcount, including restructuring teams and a hiring freeze
- Meta’s ad business has lost some of its edge due to Apple’s new iPhone privacy restrictions
Meta Platforms Inc chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg outlined sweeping plans to reorganise teams and reduce headcount for the first time ever, calling an end to an era of rapid growth at the social media giant.
He announced the freeze during a weekly Q&A session with employees, according to a person in attendance. He added that the company would reduce budgets across most teams, even those that are growing, and that individual teams will sort out how to handle headcount changes. That could mean not filling roles that employees depart, shifting people to other teams, or working to “manage out people who aren’t succeeding”, according to remarks reviewed by Bloomberg.
“I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilised by now,” Zuckerberg said. “But from what we’re seeing it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively.” A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.
Meta stock, which was already trading down to start the day, fell further on the news, down 3.7 per cent from Wednesday’s close. The shares have fallen 60 per cent so far this year.
Meta said earlier this year that it was planning to slow hiring for some management roles, and had postponed handing out full-time jobs to summer interns. The freeze announced on Thursday was necessary because “we want to make sure we’re not adding people to teams where we don’t expect to have roles next year,” Zuckerberg explained in the meeting.