Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs on Wednesday, the company confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch, noting these changes were made to reallocate resources within the company. The layoffs appear to have hit employees working on Threads, recruiting, legal operations, and design, among other teams, according to social media posts announcing the layoffs seen by TechCrunch.
“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” said a Meta spokesperson in an emailed statement. “This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”
Meta did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on how many employees were affected. One former impacted by Wednesday’s layoff tells TechCrunch that more than a dozen people on their team were laid off on Wednesday via video calls. Some employees laid off on Wednesday received six weeks of severance pay, according to the former Meta employee. (The employee spoke to TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive matter.)
Employees working on Reality Labs, Instagram, and WhatsApp were also affected by the layoffs, according to The Verge.
In recent years, Meta has laid off a large amount of its workforce to rightsize the company following aggressive pandemic hiring. In 2022, Meta laid off roughly 13% of its workforce, or 11,000 employees, for which CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally took responsibility. In 2023, Meta laid off another 10,000 employees and withdrew 5,000 open roles it had yet to fill.
