Meta to start laying off 3,000 employees today as company shifts focus to AI hiring

Meta will notify employees across more than a dozen nations in Europe, Asia, and Africa about their layoffs between February 11 and February 18. During this period, the company will inform affected employees in these regions about their employment status as part of its workforce reduction measures. This layoff process will impact workers in multiple countries, with Meta issuing notifications over several days.

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According to internal memos sent to employees on Friday, Reuters reported that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will begin company-wide layoffs on Tuesday across multiple countries as it pushes to expedite hiring for machine learning engineers.

Meta to Begin Global Layoffs, Exempting Some European Countries

One of the memos, authored by Meta’s head of people Janelle Gale, stated that notices, including those for employees in the US, were expected to be sent by Monday at 5am local time. Workers in Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands will be exempt from the layoffs “due to local regulations”, while employees in over a dozen other countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa will receive their notifications between February 11 and February 18, the memo mentioned.

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Meta Confirms Layoffs of Low Performers, Focuses on Hiring Machine Learning Engineers

Last month, the company confirmed plans to cut about 5 per cent of its “lowest performers” while backfilling some of the positions. The Friday memo, in which Gale described the cuts as “performance terminations,” was first reported by The Information.

Meta is accelerating the hiring of machine learning engineers as part of its strategy, which will impact employees across multiple countries. The company will send layoff notifications in the coming days. This decision aligns with Meta’s efforts to optimize its workforce and shift focus to high-priority areas like artificial intelligence and machine learning development. The layoffs will affect workers in various regions, but local labor regulations exempt employees in Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.