Meta to cut 8,000 jobs this week as AI spending surges

[joniboini]

GM for example a big car company, once fired over 20k people in a single year. So this not new. Just because we have AI now, doesn't mean that it's the only reason, yes it's one of the reasons, the CEO's and board thinks that they can fire the junior devs and make the senior devs use AI to supplement that, but it's not the ONLY reason.

True, but I guess it's easier to point hand to AI since it's the hottest thing right now. It's controversial, generates clicks, and people like to be enraged everyday on the internet. Although it definitely sucks for those who lose their jobs. i hope they can find something new quickly, or utilize what they learned from working at Meta to start a business on their own. If AI is the future, government will probably integrate that into university sooner or later. Can't wait to get a degree on AI prompt maker or something similar.

[Unknown Op]

Technology is not taking jobs or destroying them it is only shifting their roles like AI is doing. Creating new jobs like AI maintenance, data ethics or certain specialized technical roles. The roles are just transitioning. It required people to learn new skill and to upgrade them which give them growth. There are certain people who are facing a gap in losing their job and finding a new one or  taking time in learning skills so they can get a new job with a new role. So the technology is just shifting jobs rather than taking them but this transition is somehow difficult for certain people who are facing difficulties in learning about new roles.

[X-ray]

I do not see it as job loss though, I see it as a job loss that is replaced by another job vacancy elsewhere like in AI businesses or in modern day employment.

The difference is the vacancy will be a lot less than 8,000 jobs that were lost.

They probably only gonna need a tech infrastructure guy and devops to replace the others.

That's the whole point of replacing these jobs with AI, to minimze spending and because Meta has shifted their focus to become a complete AI company expect it to be the first wave.

[Samlucky O]

not again!! we have heard news of how AI is replacing human jobs for some time now, its not too long we saw that many company has lay off some thousands of workers just for AI replacement. it is obvious that the world is changing and everyone should sit up and find alternative to their business especially those that is been affected. this new era will favor some and some will become jobless for sure, but the truth is that those that it will favor most are those who are smart enough to have read the signs early, i could remember back then when technology advancement started, many people feared that they will lose their job. for example machinery equipment that where produced to help humanity enhance large productivity was seen as a threat to take away their job, but today everyone if fine where they fix themselves and i believe same thing will happen now too. everything will be fine, just that in any new development it will affect many and help many until everything becomes normal.

[Free Market Capitalist]

not again!! we have heard news of how AI is replacing human jobs for some time now, its not too long we saw that many company has lay off some thousands of workers just for AI replacement. it is obvious that the world is changing and everyone should sit up and find alternative to their business especially those that is been affected. this new era will favor some and some will become jobless for sure...

Aside from having a backup plan if you have a job that could easily be replaced by AI, I think it’s more important than ever to keep your finances in order. You should have a solid emergency fund—even one that exceeds the commonly recommended maximum of six months’ worth of expenses—as well as investments. And if you can have multiple sources of income, all the better. What doesn't help at all is adopting a victim mentality. If the world is changing, we have to adapt.

[Rubuchi]

Technology is not taking jobs or destroying them it is only shifting their roles like AI is doing. Creating new jobs like AI maintenance, data ethics or certain specialized technical roles. The roles are just transitioning. It required people to learn new skill and to upgrade them which give them growth. There are certain people who are facing a gap in losing their job and finding a new one or  taking time in learning skills so they can get a new job with a new role. So the technology is just shifting jobs rather than taking them but this transition is somehow difficult for certain people who are facing difficulties in learning about new roles.

like you rightly said, technology has always changed the nature of work for many people but it hard for it to take your jobs from you especially work is highly rewarding and requires your updated knowledge on it, gaining updated knowledge on the rapid changes we are currently experiencing in the technology industry . What Artificial Intelligence is doing now is similar to what machines and computers did in the past years by replacing some jobs with another ones through the creating of entirely new industries and opportunities.

[tabas]

Meta can no longer take any further loss for these innovations that they're taking. If they have to cut off their employees job just to save through this AI adoption, they'll have to. Remember that they've got a bunch of losses from trying to get into web3 when they have made that diem/libra project which is also related to AI. They're not giving up in it but they have to give up the thousands of workers that could allot that budget for the project. It's sad that it has become a norm to see layoffs from these tech companies.

[eaLiTy]

It is said that 8000 jobs represents like 10% of Meta's workforce. I was guessing this could happen when we saw the news that Meta is building an AI that will help their workers. But after few weeks, this is what we have seen.

This is not the first time Meta is cutting jobs. After COVID, Meta has lost a whopping $83 billion because they were focusing too much on VR despite warnings from economists.

During that period they started laying off employees, 11,000 in 2022, 10,000 in 2023 and many were laid off in-between. Now 8000 workers are being laid off as the company is focusing and investing heavily on AI data centers without identifying new revenue sources. Consequently, we can expect more cuts in the future.

I do not see it as job loss though, I see it as a job loss that is replaced by another job vacancy elsewhere like in AI businesses or in modern day employment.

For the employees who lost their jobs, it will be a hurdle to find new jobs as many IT companies are reducing their workforce.

[Ishicryptic]

Every merits have their demerits and this is one of it, AI have been very useful for all of us, it have made jobs easier and information at your fingertip but at the same time it is stealing people's jobs like what we're hearing about Meta employers that AI are about to make jobless. I believe that in no distant future many human jobs will become obsolete because AI will take over and be more accurate and faster than the human workforce so we should all consider the types of jobs that we are doing now and know if it's not something that AI can give a better output. Let us not panic, the labor force survived after the industrialization era when industrial machines were taking over jobs, they will still survive the AI era.

[Satofan44]

I do not see it as job loss though, I see it as a job loss that is replaced by another job vacancy elsewhere like in AI businesses or in modern day employment.

You can't just "see it" as whatever you wish to see it, that is how delusions are formed. Things are either objectively job losses or they are not. What you refer to you could call a job replacement, but firing 8000 people to hire 800 people in another division is a job loss.

Funny thing is that those 8,000 employees about to be effected are among the meta workforce that labour to produce the huge resources invested into AI development and now their giving way to those AI.

Did anybody force them to work at the evil company Meta? Nope. There is not a single good thing that this company has done for humanity, humanity would be much better off if it didn't exist in the first place. People join terrible companies out of sheer greed, and then cry foul when said company does something bad against them -- like toddlers running away from the consequences of their own actions.

I have a friend who works in IT and they have all been advised to try and find a way to make their
jobs AI enhanced rather than AI replaceable because thats whats coming down the line. Anyone
sitting at a computer pushing a mouse around is at risk of losing their job in the next 2 to 5 years.

Most people in those jobs are useless, shitty workers that are dead weight. Scheduling endless meetings to talk about bullshit because you can't produce anything useful is a key point of such employees, that is why they can be automated away easily. Nevertheless, this is still going to have far ranging negative ramifications unless something structurally changes about everything relating to labor and income.

A Chinese court ruled that companies cannot terminate employees just to replace them with artificial intelligence systems, as authorities juggle the need to stabilize the domestic labor market with a global race to develop AI technologies.

https://fortune.com/2026/05/03/chinese-court-layoffs-workers-ai-replacement-labor-market/

And after reading your post, I started to feel that this rule should be implemented internationally to keep the employment rate healthy. What do you say?

No, fuck off with this communist shit. A state should not have this kind of control over a free enterprise. A business should be able to fire anyone for anything, every other way is wrong and childish. 

[bubilas]

It is said that 8000 jobs represents like 10% of Meta's workforce. I was guessing this could happen when we saw the news that Meta is building an AI that will help their workers. But after few weeks, this is what we have seen.

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/meta-cut-8-000-jobs-125254890.html

I do not see it as job loss though, I see it as a job loss that is replaced by another job vacancy elsewhere like in AI businesses or in modern day employment.

You are right, because this is the exchange of one specialty for a smaller number of other more technologically advanced other specialties. This evolution is happening all the time, because professions are disappearing and being replaced by new ones. A miller, a ferryman across a river - I immediately recall the disappeared professions. Is someone grieving for them now? They were replaced by the same uncles and aunts, only with more technological equipment - a machine tool or a device.

[Halifat]

Meta can no longer take any further loss for these innovations that they're taking. If they have to cut off their employees job just to save through this AI adoption, they'll have to. Remember that they've got a bunch of losses from trying to get into web3 when they have made that diem/libra project which is also related to AI. They're not giving up in it but they have to give up the thousands of workers that could allot that budget for the project. It's sad that it has become a norm to see layoffs from these tech companies.

Immediately I saw this news, I was sad because it is not easy for someone to be sacked after you have a lot of responsibility on your head. On the other hands we that are not involved should take this chances as an opportunity for us, meaning to protect ourselves from losing value in our working places how to prevent that we have to adapt AI very fast so that we can be relevant in our field of work, the best thing now is to have more of artificial intelligence skills to enrich our curriculum vitae. For some people that have not started, it's never too late, AI has not gone far be in the first batch to protect your job.

[asriloni]

You know the saddest past from this massive lay off is that when Zuckerberg told his 8k employess to WFH, but he sends them an email of layoff later. This massive lay off proves the AI snow ball is starting to threat human's existance.

The lay off due to the AI shifting is just flooded the market with talents, and force these talents to kill each other to fight for the same position. It's obviously making harder to get the job.

It creates imbalanced demand-supply between jobs and dalents. So it can be a loophole for a corporation to hire someone by paying him less than what he deserved.

Damn! AI sounds like a boomerang for human.

[Findingnemo]

Meta AI is now handling many things, which used to be managed by real people. I am not that well educated about the subject but let me tell you what I saw about their recent changes. Meta AI is now analysing the contents posted on social media and they will keep looking for content that goes against their community standards, and even worse th AI bot just terminates the account with no further questions. Meta should have the actual people at the final decision maker but looking at it, they are more important on saving money than making it accurate.

[Cheema02]

AI takes jobs away from people one way or another. The more unemployment there is, the lower the effective demand, including for AI tokens. If AI takes away all people's jobs, how will AI generate profits for corporations? Most likely, humanity is moving towards a new social structure in which profit will not be the engine of the economy. And there will be no economy as such in the usual sense.

It will be a cross between a concentration camp and feudalism. Well, then each corporation will have its own digital concentration camp. If there is no free trade, then there will be no need for advertising and marketing, which means that social networks will become a tool for control, a social rating that gives a bonus when distributing food given out by a corporation for good behavior.

Your point is highlights the future impact of AI on ecnomics and communities. If continuously AI and Automation works together  efficiently then a large number of humans replace with AI and unemployment rate becomes so high and due to this happening purchasing power of individuals automatically affects. If a large ratio of people don't have power to purchase ordinary goods then economy don't play its role properly. But its not fair to says that the future of individuals going towards wrong direction because technology itself have not negative impact and its neutral for individuals but the main thing is its outcome which depends on laws and leadership and the behavior of individuals how can they adopt it. AI is a good tool because its very efficient and productive in health, education and other sectors. And Social media also plays its role in very  ways and history shows that communities develope new system with change in technology so initial challenges to adapt technology is a routine work and in the AI era human dignity must be the major concern for authorities.

[Cookdata]

I don't understand why so many people want to work in corporate companies instead of focusing on their own business. I mean, there are people who have finances and resources, connections as well but they still aim to become a workforce of corporate company. Okay, maybe it's a good decision to build connections further but after spending 5 or more years and still earning almost the same salary (thanks to inflation too), what's the point? You are nothing for a company and they can fire you at any time they want. That's why we should focus on your business.

By the way, I'm wondering, what were the type of jobs that they replaced? Are they replacing software developers who have at least 1-2 years of work experience? Or are they replacing unskilled workers?

How do you expect a tech person to start a business? You mean somebody that has work for a multi billion company should go and start a business because they were laid off? That's not how life work. If you have a work with Meta for at least a year, that alone can boost your resume in any tech company, you can always get hired in another company. The same job they do in meta that prompt the company to sack them can get them hire in another company.

Tech jobs isn't like those one where you can pick an idea and decide to work on that idea, it doesn't work like that. Even if they decide to start their own start up, you need an idea and you need finance to bring the idea into live and you know the dangerous part the start up may fail and that brings you back to nothing. You have failed the investors that entrusted their money to your startup project and you have loss reputation in securing another funds from venture capitals, tech job can be sweet and can be sour.

[gabbie2010]

It is said that 8000 jobs represents like 10% of Meta's workforce. I was guessing this could happen when we saw the news that Meta is building an AI that will help their workers. But after few weeks, this is what we have seen.

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/meta-cut-8-000-jobs-125254890.html

I do not see it as job loss though, I see it as a job loss that is replaced by another job vacancy elsewhere like in AI businesses or in modern day employment.

A whooping 8000 workforce gone this is not a good news especially to new graduates who are looking for new job whereas the existing experienced ones had lost their jobs due to AI, to me AI would rendered a lot of workers redundant in the nearest future as many organizations and companies would embrace this technology to cut cost I believe tgatvis why Meta company is trying to adopt so as to maximize their profit and remain competitive among their peers, in fact AI can now be use to write code and  visual designs etc  however I think their is going be another sector that would create opportunities for human being which AI might not be able to handle.

[Accardo]

Technology is not taking jobs or destroying them it is only shifting their roles like AI is doing. Creating new jobs like AI maintenance, data ethics or certain specialized technical roles. The roles are just transitioning. It required people to learn new skill and to upgrade them which give them growth. There are certain people who are facing a gap in losing their job and finding a new one or  taking time in learning skills so they can get a new job with a new role. So the technology is just shifting jobs rather than taking them but this transition is somehow difficult for certain people who are facing difficulties in learning about new roles.

Maintaining AI would cost companies more money on the long run, the job market can't get emptied and filled with robots, humans would fit in, and still get calls from big companies to balance the settings. Unless they'll end up selling to AI, and robotics, who would buy or patronize their business if nobody got a job anymore. They're also shooting themselves on the leg. This is more like a trend or AI race getting more traction, or a way of telling humans to learn something else other than the old school skills which has or already got replaced by AI. For the main time, while the test running is happening, after some time, the whole trend will die down, and humans will be needed to be back with a certain standard in skill or morals in handling AI, or working with AI to facilitate job process.

[Hamza2424]

I do not see it as job loss though, I see it as a job loss that is replaced by another job vacancy elsewhere like in AI businesses or in modern day employment.

You are right, bro, but we have to realize that it is not a 1:1 kind of job replacement. The new replacements for these 8k people would be a lot fewer in number because of AI, and that's what makes it more of a structural shift in how tech value is produced. As AI becomes more available, giants lean heavily into automation, and fewer humans are needed to build the same scale of products.

The modern employment market could also absorb talent, but AI makes it look like people need to catch up. Then what about those who have learned specific skills that helped train these AI models in the first place, and are now being replaced by them? This can feel like a huge waste of talent, although it also marks a major shift in the workforce. It is nothing new, previously, new innovations replaced various types of work, and now it is AI.

[terrific]

Every merits have their demerits and this is one of it, AI have been very useful for all of us, it have made jobs easier and information at your fingertip but at the same time it is stealing people's jobs like what we're hearing about Meta employers that AI are about to make jobless. I believe that in no distant future many human jobs will become obsolete because AI will take over and be more accurate and faster than the human workforce so we should all consider the types of jobs that we are doing now and know if it's not something that AI can give a better output. Let us not panic, the labor force survived after the industrialization era when industrial machines were taking over jobs, they will still survive the AI era.

It is already happening and that's the impact of AI being so helpful to all of us and the jobs that we work for.
The companies that sees it will take the advantage of it because first, it makes them so quick in doing the job done.
There will be no unions for which the companies are afraid to have and so there won't be benefits to pay for.
Lastly, very cost effective for them while doing the job and that's all what they want. To make the job done in time.
This emergence is also going to create more professionals who are good in AI and utilizing it.