Mark Zuckerberg will lay off an additional 10,000 employees (opens in new tab) and eliminate 5,000 currently unfilled positions as Facebook's parent company, Meta, struggles to deal with "new economic realities" including rising interest rates, geopolitical instability, and increased regulation. positions will be eliminated, the company announced.

The layoffs are part of what Zuckerberg calls Meta's "Year of Efficiency," a restructuring plan that will focus on "flattening the organization, discontinuing low-priority projects, and reducing hiring rates" over the next few months. Employees on Meta's recruiting team will be told tomorrow if their jobs are still available, and layoffs in the technical group will take place in April, followed by layoffs in the business group in May.

"This is going to be tough, and there is no way around it," Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg said, "We are saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been a part of our success. They have dedicated themselves to our mission and I personally appreciate their efforts." We will continue to support people in the same ways we always have and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve."

A major goal of Zuckerberg's "Year of Efficiency" is to make Meta "flatter" and "leaner."

Zuck also wants to ensure that technology is a priority for Meta, which "returns the ratio of engineers to other roles to a more optimal one." This means.

"It is important," he writes, "that all groups become leaner and more efficient to allow the technology group to be as lean and efficient as possible." We will find ways to operate more efficiently while continuing to meet all of our important and legal obligations."

The word "efficient" appears in some form or another more than 20 times in Zuckerberg's layoff announcement. That may not seem like the most solid basis for betting on the company's future (not to mention the thousands of employees still working there), but let's face it, careful planning and reasonable expectations have not been a big part of Meta's strategic planning to date.

"We have the opportunity to make bold decisions that other companies can't make. So we have put together a financial plan that will deliver sustainable results as long as we run all of our teams more efficiently, while at the same time allowing us to invest heavily for the future." The reforms we are undertaking will enable us to achieve this financial plan."

This announcement comes just four months after the previous layoffs at Meta, where more than 11,000 employees were laid off (opens in new tab). Zuckerberg attributed these layoffs to "weak macroeconomic conditions, increased competition, and advertising signal loss," as well as inaccurate forecasts regarding revenue growth rates due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in Meta's earnings being significantly lower than expected. Meta's Q3 2022 (open in new tab) revenue was $27.7 billion, which is three-month growth, of which $4.3 billion was net income.

Although Zuckerberg did not mention it in today's announcement, Stephan Kasriel, Meta's head of commerce and financial technology, said yesterday that the company is "scaling back digital collectibles (NFT) (opens in new tab)" to focus on other priorities.