In the wake of Twitter's thousands of layoffs, Meta Platforms Inc. is also massively downsizing its workforce in a move seeking to contain its budget.
The parent company of Facebook is cutting the jobs of more than 11,000 people, or 13% of the company. Affected employees will be notified Wednesday morning, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Last year, Meta had over 200 employees in its Kendall Square office in Cambridge, which is home to the location-based product team and map quality data team. Facebook opened its first Boston office in 2013.
"It is unfortunate, and it is pretty difficult from a timing perspective, given all the economic uncertainty," Sean McLoughlin of Boston-based HireMinds said Monday.
"The reality is we are shifting a little bit back into a winners and losers, the health of your business matters," McLoughlin added. "If we are hearing anything, it is 'wait and see', not widespread doom and gloom. This isn't 2020. this isn't 2009."
Jim Lockwood, of Syntagma Group added he is seeing some companies moving away from hiring full-time employees, instead opting for high-level consultants and contractors.
Lockwood added there is still a very strong market for top talent.
Boston Business Journal
The META layoffs come at a time when the social media company invested heavily in its Metaverse.
"This is not a surprise to anyone in the tech space, META was not doing a great job executing on its business plan," Emerson College Senior Professor and BIGfish Communications founder David Gerzof Richard said.
"If you were a company that was planning your 2023 based on the consumer behaviors of 2020 and 2021 you are going to be in big trouble because those consumers are not going to behave anyway like they did when we were in COVID, and during COVID lockdown" he added.
"You have pressures on revenues and large costs associated with standing up virtual reality, it is an economically tough period of time to be them," Boston University Questrom School of Business Professor Tim Simcoe added.
