20,000 job cuts at Meta, Microsoft
Meta said that it’s cutting 10% of its workforce, just as
Microsoft announced that it’s offering employee buyouts for the first
time in its 51-year history.
Meta only hinted at AI in its announcement.
The company told employees in a memo that it plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, equaling about 8,000 jobs, with cuts beginning on May 20, “all part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.”
The company is also scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open roles, according to the memo.
Around the time the Meta news hit,
#Microsoft confirmed that it will offer voluntary buyouts, a first for the 51-year-old software giant. About 7% of U.S. employees are eligible, according to a person familiar with the plans who asked not to be named because the number isn’t being made public.
With about 125,000 U.S. employees, that could add up to 8,750 cuts.
“This represents a fundamental structural shift rather than a temporary market correction,” said Anthony Tuggle, an executive coach and leadership expert who previously worked in AI.
“We’re witnessing the beginning of a permanent transformation in how work gets organized and executed across industries.”
Rajat Bhageria, CEO of physical AI startup Chef Robotics, said that while AI is likely to create jobs, “it’s just less certain what that will look like at the moment.”
“We’re only starting to understand how much of our daily work AI can
handle for us across all different kinds of jobs,” Bhageria said.
Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s chief economist, said “Because natural attrition isn’t happening as much, companies are being more aggressive about pushing people out of the door.”
Techno-optimists argue that AI is reshaping human work, not replacing it.
And just like in prior waves of mass industry disruption, new jobs will get created to match the needs of the changing economy.
Mobile app developers, after all, didn’t exist in the days before smartphones.