Meta and Google reduce costs from staff cuts

Meta plans to cut expenses by at least 10% in the coming months, in part through staff reductions, as the social media giant faces stagnant growth and increased competition, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

The company has quietly begun shedding significant numbers of employees, reorganizing departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company, according to current and former managers familiar with the matter, in a move that hits staff cuts while avoiding mass layoffs.

The cuts are likely to be a prelude to deeper cuts, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. While some savings come from cuts in overhead and consulting budgets, the people said, much is expected to come from reduced jobs.

The moves come after weeks of Meta executives publicly discussing the need for a hiring freeze and “relentless prioritization” of their business, avoiding the use of the word layoffs.

As part of its own cost-cutting measures, Alphabet’s Google also required some employees to apply for new jobs if they wanted to stay with the company.

Last week, Google told about half of the more than 100 employees at the Area 120 startup incubator that they would need to find other jobs at the company within 90 days, people familiar with the decision said.

Google typically gives employees 60 days to apply for other roles at the company if their jobs are cut, though Area 120 employees are generally given more time if their projects are cancelled, people familiar with the process said.

In March, more than 1,400 Google employees signed a petition demanding that the company extend the typical 60-day period to 180 days for a group of more than 100 employees in the cloud computing division, citing the “barriers to transfer that many workers face. face”.

A Google spokesperson said nearly 95% of employees who expressed an interest in staying with the company found new roles within the notice period. Alphabet had 174,014 employees at the end of the second quarter, up 20.8% from the previous year.