With multiple tech giants and small firms joining the layoff wave, the sector has seen a bloodbath that hit more than three lakh employees since late 2022. As Amazon led the pack with 18,000 job cuts, Google's investor called for firing 1.5 lakh people instead of 12,000, simply because firms had hired too many people to servive pandemic demand. Now Facebook's parent Meta is set to become the first big tech firm to initiate round two of layoffs, after firing 11,000 people last year.
Anxiety affecting morale
The upcoming reduction will reportedly be at par with Meta's previous push to trim its workforce by 13 per cent, and will take a toll on non-engineering staff. Plans for another layoff follow the anxiety among employees, triggered by poor performance reviews by the company. As workers are uncertain about receiving bonuses or getting fired, the morale has reportedly been bogged down at Facebook.
Making changes for the future
Even though Meta's revenues went beyond expectations for the fourth quarter of FY23, the firm is cutting costs to meet financial targets. At the same time it is creating an alternative for ChatGPT's generative AI, which Facebook is reportedly prioritising over the metaverse.
