Facebook's parent company Meta eliminates jobs, sacks India's top executives

Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms Inc on Wednesday eliminated jobs in its business and operations units as part of its final batch of the three-round of layoffs, which also included two top Indian executives. The fresh layoff was part of the plan announced by the company in March which aimed at cutting 10,000 jobs across verticals.

Many employees who were part of teams like programme management, corporate communications, content strategy, marketing, site security and enterprise engineering announced their layoffs on LinkedIn.

The social media giant also deducted employees from its units which focused on integrity and privacy, according to posts shared by employees on LinkedIn.

Earlier this year, Meta emerged as the first Big Tech firm which announced a second round of mass layoffs, days after it fired more than 11,000 employees. The deduction of employees brought the headcount of the company down to where it was in mid-2021 after it went through a hiring spree which doubled the company's workforce since 2020.

The shares of the company ended marginally up in a weaker market. This year, Meta has doubled its value and has made it to top performers in the S&P 500 index, because of its cost-cutting drive and its focus on artificial intelligence.

In March, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg stated that the majority of layoffs in the second round would take place within the company in three "moments" in a span of several months and will end in May.

He had further stated that some smaller rounds can continue after that.

Non-engineering roles majorly hit by layoffs

The job cuts have overall affected the non-engineering roles most heavily which has reinforced the importance of those who write code at Meta. 

Zuckerberg has taken the vow to restructure business teams "substantially" and return to a "more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles". 

Even among job cuts which are specifically aimed at technology teams, the company has deducted non-engineering roles like user experience research and content design in high numbers, as per the executives addressing a company town hall after the company's last round of layoffs. 

Around 4,000 employees were sacked in April, Zuckerberg stated during the town hall, after the recruiting teams received a smaller hit in March. 

The social media company stated that the latest cuts will impact 490 employees at its international headquarters in Dublin which accounts for 20 per cent of its Irish workforce.

Meanwhile, India's two top executives, Director of Marketing Avinash Pant and Director and Head of Media Partnerships Saket Jha Saurabh, were also sacked, as per people with direct knowledge of the matter.

No comments were immediately made by the two executives. 

The layoffs in Meta took place after months of waning revenue growth amid a digital ad pullback from the pandemic e-commerce boom and high inflation.