Facebook announces a cut of thousands of jobs in a second round of layoffs

Facebook's parent company, Meta, said on March 14 that it would cut 10,000 jobs this year. The announcement comes in the middle of a mass job cut in America as inflation threatens with higher interest rates.

With this announcement, Meta became the first Big Tech business to start a second round of massive layoffs after three of the top-tier companies in the sector announced job cuts in the fall.

Meta was also the first big company to announce a massive layoff in 2022. Eleven thousand employees were fired, 13% of the total workforce. Zuckerberg took responsibility for this action and announced a hiring freeze.

Reuters said the company's shares jumped 6% after the anticipated announcement. The layoffs are part of a restructuring that will eliminate expenses, aside from the hiring freeze, putting resources into specific areas.

Other Big Tech actors cited a similar reason for their layoffs. According to Forbes, Microsoft's CEO pointed out that the company will continue hiring in crucial areas, channeling its resources to new technologies and dropping others.

During the last months of 2022 and the first months of 2023, other big tech companies like Twitter and Amazon started announcing massive layoffs that would affect thousands of workers.

Forbes mentions the unstable economy as another reason these companies have let go of that many employees. In 2022 Americans saw the highest inflation in history, and companies were bracing to face that mixed with a recession like no other in 2023.

On January 18, Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, announced that the company would fire 5% of its staff by the end of the 2023 Fiscal Year. Part of the 10.000 workers received their notices that same day and the following weeks.

Amazon's layoffs were also announced in two parts, one in November 2022 and another in January 2023. In sum, the company fired 18.000 employees, around 6% of the company's workforce.

These layoffs affect hundreds of immigrant workers. The tech industry in the U.S. is highly reliant on specialized foreign workers. According to a Bloomberg report, big tech companies have sponsored around 45.000 work visas in the last three years.

Generally, these workers receive an H1-B visa permitting them to work in the U.S. for three years. H1-B visa holders are among the most affected workers by tech layoffs: they only have 60 days to find another job or return to their country.

Some companies, like Meta, have devised alternatives for the H1-B visa workers affected by their layoffs. Time magazine said the company offered "dedicated immigration specialists" and delayed some notices.

The layoffs have also highlighted the cracks in the H1-B visa system. Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a bipartisan immigration tech advocacy group, told Time magazine that "this is downstream from a really failed and broken system."

Schulte believes one problem is how dependent a worker is on their sponsoring company. A highly prepared worker might be discouraged from searching for another company, as it might result in legal problems.

But perhaps the most challenging part of the system is the lottery. Each year, the U.S. will grant 85.000 H1-B visas, and companies that want to sponsor a worker have to rely on luck. If their candidate is not selected, they can not be hired.

The system leads to a 75% rejection rate, according to Time. That means companies lose three out of four opportunities to fill positions with specific foreign talent, ultimately affecting the U.S.'s ability to compete in the international technological landscape.