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A tough time for big tech workers continues:
Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday in a written statement that the tech giant would lay off 10,000 more workers, adding to the 11,000 people it laid off back in November. Additionally, around 5,000 open roles that hadn't been filled yet will be closed. In other words, it's a hiring freeze on top of a large number of layoffs.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the cuts in a blog post updating Meta's "Year of Efficiency."
This will be tough and there's no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success. They've dedicated themselves to our mission and I'm personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.
Amid the layoffs, Meta has also announced that it is stepping away from NFTs to focus on other projects.
According to TechCrunch, Meta's employee head-count came in at around 76,000 after November's layoffs. In the aftermath of this week's job cuts, that would bring the count down to around 66,000.
This is, unfortunately, just part of a wider trend in the world of big tech. Other tech firms of varying sizes like Lyft, Groupon, Vimeo, and Microsoft have all laid off workers in the last year due to broader economic difficulties.
Previously: Meta Employees Brace for Layoffs Ahead of Zuckerberg's Paternity Leave
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 16 2023, @01:30AM (2 children)
I remember when tech workers were scoffing at us, telling us that we should have gone into high tech, be that web page engineer, or a real computer scientist. For my part, I moved on to another field of work, grudgingly. I really liked construction work, and it irritated me that I had to change. Now, I'll scoff at the tech workers being laid off. They should have gone into some line of work that wasn't so volatile, right?
No real worries though. The really smart ones with real skills applicable to today's world will land on their feet. The rest can learn how to smile while asking, "Would you like fries with that?"
I understand there are more and more job openings for those who can program robots! Especially those who can program a robot to ask, "Would you like fries with that?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MIRV888 on Thursday March 16 2023, @02:11AM
Being skilled at IT, control systems, & mechanical has always paid well. It's not going to pay less going forward.
My 2 cents
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday March 16 2023, @04:05PM
I'd never scoff at someone who went into construction: As far as I'm concerned, they're doing the same thing I'm doing, but with physical stuff rather than with bits. And like us techies, you'll always be mistreated and feared by the people who make their living by telling us what to do rather than by doing things.
It's not like construction doesn't also have boom-bust cycles, though: I'm guessing 2009 or so was a rough time for a lot of people who had built up a career of slapping together new homes.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.