{"id":3741379,"date":"2026-05-18T11:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/?p=3741379"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:25:17","slug":"meta-workers-fear-further-job-cuts-as-layoffs-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/meta\/2026\/meta-workers-fear-further-job-cuts-as-layoffs-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Workers Fear Further Job Cuts as Layoffs Begin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/business.facebook.com\/\">Meta<\/a> will cut around 8,000 jobs this week amid increased artificial intelligence (AI) spending.<\/p><div\r\n\tid=\"article-paywall-overlay\"\r\n\tclass=\"d-none\"\r\n>\r\n\t<div id=\"article-paywall-content\" class=\"my-4\">\r\n\t\t\n<div class=\"wpcf7 no-js\" id=\"wpcf7-f2699550-o1\" lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" data-wpcf7-id=\"2699550\">\n<div class=\"screen-reader-response\"><p role=\"status\" aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\"><\/p> 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additional logins required.\n\t<\/p>\n\t<div id='registrationContainer' class='container px-0'>\n\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n\t\t\t\t<p><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control-wrap\" data-name=\"firstName\"><input size=\"40\" maxlength=\"400\" class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text wpcf7-validates-as-required form-control border-secondary\" id=\"firstName\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" placeholder=\"First Name*\" value=\"\" type=\"text\" name=\"firstName\" \/><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n\t\t\t\t<p><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control-wrap\" data-name=\"lastName\"><input size=\"40\" maxlength=\"400\" class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text wpcf7-validates-as-required form-control border-secondary\" id=\"lastName\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" placeholder=\"Last Name*\" value=\"\" type=\"text\" name=\"lastName\" \/><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12 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name=\"email\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control-wrap\" data-name=\"newsLetterChoice\"><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-checkbox me-1\" id=\"checkNewsletter\"><span class=\"wpcf7-list-item first last\"><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"newsLetterChoice[]\" value=\"yes\" checked=\"checked\" \/><span class=\"wpcf7-list-item-label\">yes<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"small\">Subscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"small lh-base\" style=\"font-size:.9rem;\">By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https:\/\/pymnts-com-develop.go-vip.net\/privacy-policy\/\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https:\/\/pymnts-com-develop.go-vip.net\/terms-conditions\/\">Terms and Conditions<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><input id='hiddenPath' type='hidden' name='path' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='userDeviceId' id='userDeviceId' \/><input type='hidden' name='pageTitle' id='pageTitle' \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<div id='formButtonRow' class='container mt-1 px-0'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><input class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-submit has-spinner btn btn-dark text-uppercase py-2 px-5 small\" id=\"theSubmitButton\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"post_id\" value=\"3741379\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"source\" value=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/meta\/2026\/meta-workers-fear-further-job-cuts-as-layoffs-begin\/\" \/><p style=\"display: none !important;\" class=\"akismet-fields-container\" data-prefix=\"_wpcf7_ak_\"><label>&#916;<textarea name=\"_wpcf7_ak_hp_textarea\" cols=\"45\" rows=\"8\" maxlength=\"100\"><\/textarea><\/label><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"ak_js_1\" name=\"_wpcf7_ak_js\" value=\"188\"\/><script>document.getElementById( \"ak_js_1\" ).setAttribute( \"value\", ( new Date() ).getTime() );<\/script><\/p><div class=\"wpcf7-response-output\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"article-paywall-hidden-content\">\r\n\t\n<p>And as CNBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/18\/metas-layoffs-starting-this-week-underscore-zuckerbergs-ai-reality-.html\">reported<\/a> Monday (May 18), those layoffs could be part of a larger series of cuts at the tech giant.<\/p>\n<p>Current and former Meta employees told the network this has ushered in an \u201cemerging sense of dread\u201d at the company, in part because additional layoffs are expected this year, including another possible round of cuts in August.<\/p>\n<p>Meta cut around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/meta\/2026\/meta-cutting-reality-labs-workforce-by-10\/\">1,000 workers<\/a> from its Reality Labs division in January and laid off hundreds of additional workers in March. According to the CNBC report, the company also decided to move away from third-party vendors and contractors handling content-moderation.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Meta is also increasing its artificial intelligence (AI), raising its 2026 guidance for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/artificial-intelligence\/2026\/meta-avocado-delay-puts-135-billion-dollar-ai-bet-under-scrutiny\/\">capital expenditures<\/a> last month by up to $10 billion, reaching as high as $145 billion.<\/p>\n<p>In announcing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/meta\/2026\/meta-prepares-8000-layoffs-to-offset-ai-infrastructure-investments\/\">coming layoffs<\/a>, a week before disclosing the increased capital spending, Meta told employees that the reductions are \u201call part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we\u2019re making.\u201d<\/p><div id=\"pymnt-2074359085\" class=\"pymnt-content pymnt-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 50px;\"><p style=\"text-align:center\">Advertisement: Scroll to Continue<\/p><script async type=\"text\/javascript\" id=\"dianomi_context_script\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dianomi.com\/js\/contextfeed.js\"><\/script> \r\n<div class=\"dianomi_context\" data-dianomi-context-id=\"4329\"><\/div><\/div>\n<p>The CNBC report characterizes the company\u2019s tone here as \u201cdramatically\u201d different from the cuts it made in 2022, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent an apologetic memo to staff acknowledging that he overhired during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,\u201d Zuckerberg wrote.<\/p>\n<p>So far this year, there have been nearly 110,000 layoffs at 137 tech companies, the report added, citing Layoffs.fyi. That\u2019s compared to roughly 125,000 cuts during all of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote earlier this month Meta\u2019s new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/artificial-intelligence\/2026\/big-tech-personal-ai-agents-are-coming-to-do-list\/\">personal AI agent<\/a> Hatch, and the edge it has\u2014along with Google\u2019s Remy\u2014over OpenClaw: they are both part of the two firms\u2019 existing apps.<\/p>\n<p>That positioning is in keeping with where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/artificial-intelligence-2\/2026\/more-than-60-of-consumers-now-start-daily-tasks-with-ai\/\">consumer behavior<\/a> is headed. PYMNTS Intelligence research has found that more than six out of every 10 U.S. consumers had used a dedicated AI platform in the past year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither Google nor Meta face the cost problem that ended OpenClaw\u2019s cheap access,\u201d PYMNTS added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth own the computing infrastructure that their assistants run on. When Anthropic raised the price of running OpenClaw, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/artificial-intelligence-2\/2026\/anthropic-says-claude-code-users-will-need-to-pay-more-for-openclaw\/\">millions of users<\/a> were left without an affordable option. Google and Meta are building for exactly that audience into the places those users already are.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>\r\n\twindow.pymntsAllowedArticleCount = 1;\r\n\twindow.pymntsPostID = 3741379;\r\n<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meta will cut around 8,000 jobs this week amid increased artificial intelligence (AI) spending. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content \u2014 no additional logins required. yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today. By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3678122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","pymnts_footnotes":""},"categories":[67261],"tags":[6420,66934,9206,4277,133069,5299],"class_list":["post-3741379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meta","tag-layoffs","tag-meta","tag-news","tag-personnel","tag-pymnts-news","tag-whats-hot"],"acf":{"suggested_titles":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meta Workers Fear Further Job Cuts as Layoffs Begin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meta will cut around 8,000 jobs this week amid increased artificial intelligence spending, what could be part of a larger series of cuts.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/meta\/2026\/meta-workers-fear-further-job-cuts-as-layoffs-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meta Workers Fear Further Job Cuts as Layoffs Begin | PYMNTS.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meta will cut around 8,000 jobs this week amid increased artificial intelligence (AI) spending. 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