Meta is cutting 5% of its workforce, extending its AI-driven efficiency era

Less than two weeks after reporting that the company had grown its headcount in 2024, Meta is doubling down once again on its efficiency-first ways. As of Monday morning, the Facebook parent company began its latest round of company-wide layoffs, with plans to trim 5% of its workforce in total — the equivalent of ~3,700 employees.

While its full-year report outlined a 10% increase in headcount from the year prior, totaling 74,067 workers, Meta has been explicit in its intentions to keep focusing on streamlining its business following its “year of efficiency” in 2023, which saw 19,000 jobs cut after a post-Covid hiring boom. Now, with plans to continue to make headway on “AI, glasses, and the future of social media,” an array of positions are at risk of becoming obsolete amidst the push.

Though these cuts were focused on “low-performers,” Business Insider is reporting that some employees who said they had “received positive performance ratings in their midyear reviews” were also let go.

Meta’s expansion last year was largely driven by its strategy shift toward generative AI, as Big Tech companies gear up to gain ground in the space in 2025. On the earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “a lot” of new headcount growth is going toward “investing aggressively” in AI initiatives, with nearly 90% of year-over-year headcount growth in Q4 being in the R&D space, adding, “How well we execute on this will also determine our financial trajectory over the next few years.”