Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is set to commence company-wide layoffs while fast-tracking the hiring of machine learning engineers, reported Reuters citing Meta’s internal memos.
The process is set to commence on 10 February 2025, in most countries, including the US.
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According to one of the posts, authored by Meta’s head of people Janelle Gale, employees in Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands would be exempt due to local regulations.
The layoffs will extend to other regions, with notifications planned to be delivered between 11 February and 18 February across various countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Meta Engineering for Monetization vice-president Peng Fan was cited by the news agency as saying in the memo that Meta, despite the staff reductions, is expediting the hiring of machine learning engineers and other critical engineering roles.
The company had previously confirmed plans to trim 5% of its “lowest performers” and backfill some of the positions.
As of September 2024, Meta’s workforce stood at approximately 72,000 employees, meaning a 5% cut could impact around 3,600 positions.
The memo on the layoffs, referred to as “performance terminations”, was first reported by The Information, according to Reuters.
In a post, Fan said: “Thank you for your continued support in helping us achieve our accelerated hiring goals, and better align with our company’s priorities for 2025.”
Amidst these changes, Meta is redirecting investments into AI, with billions of dollars allocated to AI-related infrastructure.
