Mark Zuckerberg “Freezes Hiring on Meta, Layoff Decisions Could Come As Global Economy Impacts Revenue

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with family. (photo: Facebook @markzuckerberg)

JAKARTA - Meta Platform Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday September 29 that the company was imposing a company-wide hiring freeze and warned them that more possible downsizing agendas were coming.

First reported by Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner and confirmed by sources to The Verge, comments made during an internal call show how Meta is responding to its revenue decline caused by the global economic slowdown and Apple's ad tracking changes. Meta's share price has fallen more than half this year.

In May, Zuckerberg announced a hiring freeze affecting certain Meta segments and said he couldn't promise about possible layoffs, but by the end of June, his tone had changed.

In a question and answer session reported by The Verge, he said, “Realistically, there might be a group of people in the company who shouldn't be here. And part of my hope by raising expectations and having a more aggressive aim, and just kind of turning the heat up a bit, is that I think some of you might just say that this place isn't for you. And self-election doesn't matter to me."

Asked about today's meeting, Meta spokesman Dave Arnold declined to comment but pointed to comments from Zuckerberg during the last Meta earnings call, where he said, “Our plan is to continue reducing employee growth over the next year. A lot of teams will shrink so we can divert energy to other areas."

Reduction of employees is indeed one of the solutions that will be taken by Meta in addition to freezing employee recruitment until the current world economic conditions become more stable.