Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, among others, plans to lay off 8,000 employees. The head of Meta’s HR department reported this in a memo to employees.
Ann De Nil
Journalist at HLN
Source: ANP
The round of layoffs, which will affect 10 percent of the workforce, will take place on May 20. In addition to the mass layoffs, the company will also not hire new people for the 6,000 positions currently open, the memo says. Business magazine ‘Bloomberg’ was able to view it.
Artificial intelligence
In the memo, the company hints that the layoffs are related to a new investment in AI. Facebook’s parent company is busy pumping money into artificial intelligence in the form of language models and chatbots, among other things.
Leaked out
The round of layoffs is already being announced because the plans for the mass layoff had already been leaked, Meta describes in the memo. The Reuters news agency reported in mid-March that this would involve approximately 20 percent of the workforce.
