The social media giant is bracing for an economic downturn

Meta Platforms announced Tuesday that it will axe 10,000 more jobs – its second round of mass layoffs – as the tech industry braces for a deep economic downturn.

The job cuts – which come after the company slashed 11,000 jobs in November – are part of a larger restructuring plan, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared last month that 2023 would be Meta’s “year of efficiency.”

The owner of Facebook and Instagram, which had been pouring billions of dollars into building the futuristic metaverse, has struggled with a slump in advertising.

“This is really Zuckerberg and Meta ripping the band-aid off, in terms of the cost structure,” Daniel Ives, Senior Equity Analyst at Wedbush Securities said.

“Clearly, they’ve seen headwinds, and it’s really a 180-degree turnaround in terms of what we saw from a year ago, where this company was spending money like 1980 rock stars.

“This metaverse strategy is really starting to reverse course as Zuckerberg is reading the room – that’s what Wall Street wants to see.”

In a message to staff, Zuckerberg called 2022 “a humbling wake-up call” and said while the latest job cuts would be announced in April and May, they could continue through the end of the year.

Worries of an economic downturn due to rising interest rates have sparked a series of mass job cuts across corporate America: from Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to fellow Big Tech firms Amazon and Microsoft.