Meta to lay off 5% of staff as part of "performance-based cuts"

Meta has announced that it will conduct "performance-based cuts", with 5% of its workforce facing redundancy.

As reported by Bloomberg, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in an internal memo that the firm plans to hire new people in these roles by the end of the year.

"I've decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster," wrote Zuckerberg.

"We typically manage out people who aren't meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we're going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle."

He added (via CNBC): "We won't manage out everyone who didn't meet expectations for the last period if we're optimistic about their future performance, and for those we do let go, we'll provide generous severance in line with what we provided with previous cuts."

Meta currently has a workforce of over 72,000 as of September 2024. It's estimated that 3,600 jobs may be at risk.

The cuts will only affect staff eligible for a performance review.

Those affected in the US will be notified on February 10, while workers situated elsewhere will be informed at a later date.

Meta previously laid off 10,000 workers and retired 5,000 open roles in March 2023. Zuckerberg attributed these cuts to improving the firm's financial health, including cancelling lower-priority projects and decreasing hiring.