Meta Freezes Hiring, Fear of Layoffs Arise Among Employees

• Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, is freezing its hiring processes.
• “We want to plan somewhat conservatively,” says CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• The tech industry, in general, is facing slow growth.

Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, has officially paused its hiring and further restructuring. Following this move, news of potential layoffs loom on the horizon. This announcement is on the heels of similar announcements in other prominent tech firms.

In a session with his employees, Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying:

I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, but from what we’re seeing it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively.

The reason for this decision, Zuckerberg says, is the uncertainty regarding the prevailing macroeconomic conditions. Earlier this year, the company had announced plans to reduce hiring engineers by 30%.  “Our plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year,” the tech entrepreneur said.

Zuckerberg also declared that many teams were going to shrink so that they could shift energy to other areas. “I wanted to give our leaders the ability to decide within their teams where to double down, where to backfill attrition, and where to restructure teams while minimizing thrash to the long-term initiatives,” he explained.

The Meta team also confirmed that it would reduce budgets across most teams. Additionally, individual teams will have to resolve how to handle headcount changes.

Though this news may come as a surprise to the general public, the tech industry is not startled by Meta’s decision. The industry, in general, has been going through its own winter. With the global economic decline, rocketing interest rates, wars, and regulatory hurdles, the tech industry, like many others, is also struggling.