Meta has begun a large round of global layoffs that will impact nearly 10 percent of its workforce, affecting around 8,000 employees across multiple departments. The job cuts started on Wednesday and are expected to happen in 3 phases.
Reports indicate that teams affected so far include employees working in integrity operations, cybersecurity, and content design. The integrity division is responsible for handling harmful content and hate speech across Meta’s platforms.
The company has confirmed that employees in the United States will receive 16 weeks of severance pay, along with an additional 2 weeks for every year worked at the company.
Alongside the layoffs, Meta has also decided to cancel plans to hire 6,000 new employees. At the same time, the company plans to shift 7,000 existing workers into AI workflow-related roles as it continues expanding its artificial intelligence efforts.
The move comes amid growing concerns over employee morale within the company. Reports suggest that Meta introduced an AI tracking programme aimed at helping train its AI models, which reportedly created tensions among workers. More than 1,500 employees are said to have signed a petition asking the company not to collect their data.
An unnamed policy employee reportedly said morale has declined because workers feel they are “being used to train the AI models that will replace them”.
Employees have also raised concerns over reduced company spending on staff benefits. Reports indicate annual raises have been lowered, while median total compensation has dropped by nearly $30,000.
Despite the cuts, Meta continues to increase investments in artificial intelligence projects, including its Meta Superintelligence initiative. The company expects capital expenditures to reach between $125bn and $145bn this year, more than double compared to 2025.
During an earnings call in April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “The way to think about the investment is that we’re making a bet [on] the individual things that people care about, and that people are going to be more important in the future.”
A recent survey by an investment firm found that AI-related layoffs are contributing to more than 16,000 payroll cuts every month this year. Meanwhile, Cisco has also announced plans to cut around 4,000 jobs.
Meta shares were up 0.1 percent in midday trading.
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