Social media giant Meta laid off about 8,000 workers on Wednesday among its 78,000-person headcount.
The move was first announced last month along with news that 6,000 open positions would not be filled, according to The Associated Press.
The company’s workers in North America were told to work from home, coinciding with the layoffs, according to Reuters.
In an email to the 8,000 employees let go, Meta said that “we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” according to Business Insider.
The company had 77,896 employees at the end of March, according to Reuters. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg told employees internally Wednesday that “we do not expect other companywide layoffs this year,” according to Reuters.
Some people still on the job will move into new roles, with 7,000 on AI workflow initiatives, Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale told employees in the memo, according to Reuters.
Prior to the layoffs, some Meta workers voiced concerns about artificial intelligence tracking them while they worked.
One anonymous employee told The San Francisco Standard that “if you’re on a work machine, you are probably being surveilled. … The sort of unapologetic, ’we’re training your replacement, and we’re not paying you more for it’ approach is just another signal of how little Meta cares about the humans that it employs.”
After being axed Wednesday, the same employee told the outlet, “I did indeed get laid off. It is a huge financial bummer, but the rest of it is honestly great. I’m definitely relieved.”
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