Facebook owner Meta announced a new wave of job cuts on Tuesday. It’s part of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the company’s “year of efficiency,” as the U.S. tech sector continues to shrink.

Zuckerberg said in an email to employees that Meta will cut 10,000 positions in middle management over the next few months, leaving the remaining 5,000 undecided.

The cuts follow 11,000 job cuts the company announced in November, beginning a similar wave of job cuts at tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, but not Apple. was.

In its second announcement, the California-based company will cut about 25% of its workforce in just four months.

“This is a big deal and there is no way around it. This means saying goodbye to a talented and passionate colleague who has been a part of our success,” said Zucker. Berg said.

The first casualty is Meta’s recruiting department. The company will formally halt the mass hiring that occurred when big tech firms ramped up operations to meet high demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Zuckerberg said the technical and business sectors will also be affected in the coming months, and that “in a small number of cases, it may take until the end of the year to complete these changes.”

In January, the billionaire founder of Meta told analysts that the company’s “management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency'” and that it will make the company “a stronger, more agile organization.” He warned that more pain would come when he said he would focus on

Meta was in rough straits in a tough economic climate in 2022 as advertisers were forced to cut back on marketing and Apple’s data privacy changes reduced the scope for ad personalization.

“For most of our history, we’ve had rapid revenue growth every year and had the resources to invest in many new products. But last year was a humble wake-up call,” Zuckerberg said. is writing

“I think we need to prepare for the possibility that this new economic reality will last for years.”

Slimmer and faster?

The company is also under pressure to bet big on the Metaverse, a virtual reality world that Meta believes will be the next frontier online.

“Zuckerberg has promised investors that 2023 will be an efficient year for meta, and he needs to do it well,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.

“Meta recognizes the need to downplay its outlandish and costly metaverse ambitions and highlight the work it is doing in the near future to improve its core services as new threats such as AI increase. I do,” she added.

In another blow to the promise of the Metaverse, Zuckerberg said early analysis showed that engineers who collaborated directly with colleagues were more efficient than those who worked remotely.

The company said it was “focused on understanding this further,” but “in the meantime, I encourage everyone to find more opportunities to work directly with their colleagues.”

Last year’s troubles sent the company’s stock down an astounding two-thirds in 12 months, but Zuckerberg said the stock would bounce back in 2023 and investors would run a leaner company. I am happy with my pledge.

Meta’s stock price jumped more than 7% after the announcement of the latest job cuts.

Meta’s CEO said it “makes the organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management.” This means that many administrators are mandated to become “individual contributors”.

Zuckerberg explained that he was pleasantly surprised by the benefits of running a more tightly organized business, with “a lot of things going faster” by eliminating low-priority projects.

“A lean organization will get its top priorities done faster. People will be more productive and work will be more fun and fulfilling,” he said.