Meta closes 6,000 open roles ahead of planned 10% workforce cuts this week

Meta is set to lay off 10% of its workforce on Wednesday as part of a sweeping restructuring effort tied to the company’s growing focus on artificial intelligence and automation.

According to an internal memo, the company will simultaneously roll out major organisational changes aimed at reshaping workflows around AI-driven operations. The move marks one of the largest workforce restructurings at the social media giant in recent years.

In the memo, Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said the company plans to transfer nearly 7,000 employees into new AI-focused initiatives while also eliminating layers of management to create leaner operating structures.

“As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures,” Gale wrote. “We’re now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership.”

The layoffs are part of a broader overhaul expected to impact nearly 20% of Meta’s workforce over time. The company had 77,986 employees as of the end of March, according to regulatory filings. Meta has also reportedly shut down around 6,000 open positions as part of the restructuring process.

Employees in North America were instructed to work remotely on Wednesday as notifications related to the layoffs and transfers are expected to be issued.

The restructuring is closely tied to Meta’s aggressive push into AI development. Several employees are being reassigned to newly created teams such as Applied AI Engineering and Agent Transformation Accelerator XFN, both focused on building AI agents capable of autonomously performing tasks traditionally handled by human employees.

Another division, Central Analytics, will focus on productivity tracking and analytics linked to AI agent development. Gale also indicated that further details regarding a new initiative called Enterprise Solutions would be announced soon.

The changes have triggered internal backlash among employees. Workers have reportedly circulated protest flyers across company offices and voiced frustration on Meta’s internal platform, Workplace.

More than 1,000 employees have also signed a petition opposing the deployment of mouse-tracking software that the company is reportedly using to train AI systems to mimic human-computer interactions. Some employees criticised executives for remaining silent about the restructuring for weeks after reports of the layoffs first surfaced.

During that period, employees reportedly responded to leadership posts on Workplace with images of elephants, referencing the “elephant in the room” amid growing anxiety around job cuts and organisational uncertainty.

Meta has not publicly commented on the restructuring plans.