--- title: "Facebook Is Getting Slammed by Another Round of Brutal Cuts" description: "According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Meta-formerly-Facebook will lay off another 10,000 of the company's still-standing employees." date: "2023-04-19" modified: "2023-04-19" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-slammed-brutal-cuts" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Meta" tags: - "facebook" - "layoffs" - "Meta" - "the digest" --- # Facebook Is Getting Slammed by Another Round of Brutal Cuts ![According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Meta-formerly-Facebook will lay off another 10,000 of the company's still-standing employees.]() *WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 29: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies via video conference during an Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee hearing on "Online platforms and market power. Examining the dominance of Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple" on Capitol Hill on July 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Graeme Jennings - Pool/Getty Images) \Image: Getty Images\* ## Another One The carnage at [Meta-formerly-Facebook]() continues. According to [new reporting from *The Wall Street Journal*](), Meta — which had already eliminated nearly 30 percent of its workforce over the past six or so months alone — will now fire another 10,000 of the company's still-standing employees. "This will be a difficult time as we say goodbye to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to Meta," Meta's head of human resources, Lori Goler, told Meta employees in a Tuesday evening memo obtained by *WaPo*. "It will take time for everyone — both those leaving and those staying — to process tomorrow's news, and I know teams will show up for each other with compassion, support and care." The cuts, per *WaPo*, will impact "highly-skilled" workers like engineers and other "technical staffers" who work in the company's product divisions, with Goler noting in her memo that staffers across Meta-owned WhatsApp, Facebook's Messenger, Instagram, and Reality Labs will be affected. There seems to have been no mention of cuts to Meta's AI divisions. That's notable, considering that company CEO Mark Zuckerberg has in recent months made a sharp turn away from his beloved metaverse division to [focus heavily]() on investor-pacifying generative AI. ## Year of Efficiency According to the report, this latest effort to cut jobs — and thus, costs — is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "Year of Efficiency," a companywide effort to restructure the massive company, which [as of November]() had boasted roughly 87,000 [metamates]() in its ranks. And while there's certainly an argument that Facebook, along with the several other Silicon Valley behemoths that made sweeping cuts last year, *was* a bit bloated, the now-several rounds of Meta layoffs has reportedly come at a [serious morale cost](), with one former employee [comparing Meta's current internal state of the union]() to "'Hunger Games' meets 'Lord of the Flies.'" To that end, Meta employees are seemingly coping however they must. "On the eve of Meta layoffs, my team is focusing on things we can control," Daniel Conrad, a product manager at WhatsApp and Y Combinator alum, [tweeted last night](), with a photo of a bottle of Japanese whiskey. In any case: layoffs suck. We're sure that getting laid off after surviving two recent — and also massive — firing rounds sucks especially bad, and we're sorry to anyone who was affected. **READ MORE:** [*Meta to unveil fresh round of job cuts among highly skilled staff*]() \[*The Washington Post*\] **More on former Facebook employees:** *[Facebook's Former Metaverse Czar Publicly Shreds the Company’s Mistakes]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()