Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms plans to lay off about 5% of its workforce, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning of an “intense” year ahead.
Meta had roughly 72,000 people, so a 5% reduction would mean a loss of 3,600 jobs.
Zuckerberg communicated his plans in a note posted to employees, which was first reported by Bloomberg. A Meta rep confirmed details of the post to Deadline.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” the exec wrote.
“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year,” Zuckerberg also wrote, “but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
Workers affected by the layoffs will be notified in February.
The year ahead will be “intense,” Zuckerberg predicted, given the company’s efforts in AI, smart glasses and its mainstay social media business.
It has already been a newsy 2025 for the tech giant, with Zuckerberg ending the company’s fact-checking efforts and naming UFC head Dana White to the board of directors earlier this month. Meta also updated its policy on “hateful conduct,” with users’ discussion of immigrants, women and transgender and nonbinary people graded on more of a curve.
The moves are seen as the latest indications of Zuckerberg’s interest in currying favor with President-elect Donald Trump, whose inauguration next Monday he plans to attend. Many conservatives have insisted for years that Meta and other tech giants have been biased against their point of view, arguing that content moderation efforts amount to censorship.
The layoffs follow deeper cuts in recent years. At the end of 2022, Zuckerberg revealed plans to cut 13% of staffers and later declared 2023 to be the company’s “year of efficiency.”
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