Latest Meta layoffs affect several hundred in New York

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Meta Platforms has let go of 343 employees in the city in its latest round of layoffs, according to a required notice that the company filed with the state today.

In the fall of 2022 the social-media giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, laid off 11,000 people, including 871 at its Manhattan offices. On March 14 CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the firm would downsize by an additional 10,000 employees and remove 5,000 open job listings in the coming months, beginning with recruiters in March. A city notice was not filed at that time.

In Zuckerberg’s announcement, he noted that tech groups would find out details about the layoffs in late April. On Wednesday the company said that an additional 4,000 workers would lose their jobs. The city filing shows the sites losing workers are 72 9th Ave. and 30 Hudson Yards.

The downsizing is part of what Zuckerberg has titled Meta’s “year of efficiency.”

“The goals of this work are: (1) to make us a better technology company and (2) to improve our financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long-term vision,” Zuckerberg wrote in a March letter.

Leaders at Meta are tasked with flattening the organization, canceling lower-priority projects and reducing hiring rates, Zuckerberg said.

City employers in the information industry, which includes several tech sectors, added 1,900 jobs in March. That contradicts the steady news of layoffs, according to figures released last week from the New York Department of Labor. Sector employers have 5,400 fewer positions than they did in December 2022, however, a hint of the end of the yearslong hiring war at top tech employers.

After two years of fast job growth, Meta’s employee count reached 87,000 last year, just before the layoffs. The company will announce its first quarter results on Wednesday after market close.