Meta to cut up to 350 jobs at its Irish operations

Up to 350 jobs at Meta in Ireland face elimination as part of a broader global workforce reduction, sources confirmed Monday.

The technology company informed employees in a memo last month that it plans to cut 10% of its workforce, approximately 8,000 staff worldwide.

Meta also said it would not fill thousands of open positions it had been recruiting for.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that staff based in Ireland received early-morning emails notifying them they could be affected by the redundancies.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has submitted a collective redundancy notification to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment in the Republic of Ireland.

The tech giant employs about 1,800 people in Ireland.

Meta has been approached for comment.

The BBC previously reported that a key reason for Meta’s layoffs is its increased spending in other areas, including artificial intelligence (AI), for which it will spend $135bn (£100bn) this year.

That amount is roughly equal to Meta’s combined AI spending over the previous three years, according to a person who viewed the memo.

Since 2022, Meta has carried out several rounds of job cuts, shedding tens of thousands of workers.

However, the company had resumed hiring, and last year its total employee count appeared to be roughly the same as before its initial layoff.

The latest job cuts will be Meta’s largest layoff since 2023.

A number of other tech firms, most of which are also investing heavily in AI tools and infrastructure, have implemented widespread job cuts this year.