Meta, Facebook's owner, initiates latest round of layoffs.

Meta, the parent company of social media giants Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has started notifying staff who are losing their jobs as part of its 10,000 job cuts announced last month. This comes after the company faced pressure due to a sharp slowdown in its ads business last year, leading to the layoff of 13% of its staff in 2021.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, had previously said that these layoffs were necessary to make the company more efficient and adjust to a new economic reality. In a memo outlining the plans, he described last year's challenges as a "humbling wake-up call" and stated that the cuts would enable the firm to invest in the future.

The most recent notifications apply to people working on Meta's IT teams, with another round of layoffs affecting business and administration teams expected next month. While the company declined to comment on the matter, some of the affected employees wrote on social media that they were looking for new roles.

However, these job cuts are not unique to Meta, as the entire tech industry is bracing for a wider economic slowdown, with higher borrowing costs starting to slow down business activity. According to website layoffs.fyi, over 170,000 people in the industry have been laid off globally since the start of the year, with big names such as Amazon and Google accounting for some of the largest actions.

In addition, online property firm Opendoor announced this week that it would reduce its workforce by roughly 560 jobs or 22%. This highlights the impact that economic uncertainty is having on businesses across various industries.

As for Meta, the company has said that timing could differ for people outside of the US and some cuts may not be complete until the end of the year. While this is undoubtedly a challenging time for the affected employees, Meta is taking steps to ensure that the company can adapt to changing market conditions and continue to grow in the future.