Meta, the parent company of social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, initiated a new round of layoffs this week that impacted multiple teams.
Company officials confirmed the layoffs by submitting a statement to the media outlet TechCrunch. They said that the layoffs were made so that the company could reallocate resources.
In the emailed statement, a spokesperson for the company said:
“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy. This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different rules.
“In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”
Media outlet The Verge further reported that teams with Instagram, WhatsApp and Reality Labs were all affected by these layoffs.
One prominent employee who lost her job as part of the layoffs is Jane Manchun Wong, who was a software engineer that Instagram hired in 2023. She became known for revealing new features that Meta’s apps would soon roll out before the company even announced them.
When she was appointed to her role, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and Instagram head ADam Mosseri both celebrated her hire.
Other Meta employees who were part of the layoffs announced on social media platforms that they were laid off. TechCrunch reported that they viewed posts on various platforms from employees who previously worked on design, legal operations, recruiting and Facebook.
Meta declined to offer specifics about how many people were laid off or what organizations they were members of. A spokesperson for the company did say that legal operations, recruiting and Threads all were not impacted at all.
TechCrunch spoke with one of the former employees about the situation who said that some employees were given the chance to work in a different position in the company. Others were offered a severance package, and many of those who were took advantage of that offer.
That offer, according to the employee, was six weeks of severance pay.
The employee told the outlet that more than 12 people on her team received notification that their roles were being affected by this round of layoffs. The notification was given on Wednesday via video call.
In addition to these layoffs, some Meta employees were fired this week because they used $25 meal credits they give to buy items that aren’t food, such as to fund their household needs.
These layoffs are just the latest round for Meta, which has pared back its total workforce in recent years after the company went on a hiring spree during the pandemic.
In 2022 alone, the company laid off about 11,000 employees, which represented 13% of its total workforce at the time.
Last year, another 10,000 were laid off while the company also withdrew another 5,000 open roles it hadn’t filled yet.
