Concerns for Irish jobs as Facebook owner Meta expected to announce further cuts

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: George Frey/Bloomberg

Seoirse Mulgrew

There are concerns for Irish jobs as Facebook parent Meta will announce further layoffs as it continues to downsize.

The US-based Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent firm is expected to inform staff on further job cuts later today.

It is not yet known how many of Meta’s workers in Ireland will be let go in this round of business group redundancies.

This is part of a global job cuts announcement made in March by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg who said the company's workforce would reduce by around 10,000 people.

Speaking at the time, he said it may take until the end of the year to finalise the restructuring layoffs.

March's recruitment division layoffs resulted in around 50 job losses in Ireland and April's tech groups announcement led to less than 20 job losses from Meta's Irish-based data centre team.

Last year, Meta announced 350 Irish layoffs as part of a job-cutting drive that saw 11,000 staff (13pc of the company) let go.

The company now employs around 2,600 people in Ireland.

Mr Zuckerberg has dubbed 2023 the 'Year of Efficiency' and has pledged to make Meta a leaner, more technology-focused company.

Under Irish employment law, companies with over 300 employees must notify the government if proposing collective redundancies of over 30 workers. A 30-day period of consultation is then entered into.