Meta announces a new round of layoffs affecting engineers and technical teams

Meta Platforms Inc made a second round of layoffs on Wednesday, this time for engineers and adjacent technology teams, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg moves to streamline its business in an effort to make 2023 the “year of efficiency.”

In March, Meta became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of layoffs, which it said would take place in three major batches over several months and affect 10,000 workers.

Wednesday’s cuts, although expected, drew expressions of frustration from Meta employees. Layoffs were the topic of the most popular questions at an internal company forum on Wednesday ahead of an upcoming employee town hall.

“You have crushed the morale and confidence in leadership of many high performers who work intensely. Why should we stay at Meta?” read one question seen by Reuters.

The question refers to comments Zuckerberg made last year urging employees to work “more intensively” to address business challenges at parent company Facebook and Instagram.

The company declined a Reuters request for comment.

Meta’s first round of layoffs in the fall affected more than 11,000 employees, or 13 percent of its workforce at the time, and preceded other major tech companies that laid off thousands of workers following the pandemic-led boom in digital advertising and cloud computing.

With the reorganization, Meta also shelved lower-priority projects and “flattened” the layers of middle management.

Investors have rewarded the company for downsizing.

Meta shares are up about 80% this year, more than erasing a 64% drop in 2022 and beating the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite’s 16% gain over that period.

The company, which will announce its first-quarter results on April 26, is expected to benefit from a modest pick-up in the digital advertising market and regulatory pressure on chief rival TikTok.

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