Meta announced its laying off 1,395 workers in our state.
According to the Washington State Employment Security Department, employees were notified on May 20. Their last day with the company will be July 22.
The following locations were impacted:
- 1101 Dexter Ave N in Seattle (approx. 215 affected employees)
- 1531 Utah Avenue S in Seattle (approx. 44 affected employees)
- 1550 121st Ave NE in Bellevue (approx. 699 affected employees)
- 9845 Willows Road NE in Redmond (approx. 206 affected employees)
- Approximately 231 affected remote employees residing within Washington
Meta says it’s making cuts to make the company more efficient and to offset other investments, including up to $135 billion in AI projects this year.
“We are in an AI arms race. Every tech company sees this as the gold rush, as the opportunity to become the dominant player,” said Jeff Shulman, a UW business professor.
With that AI arms race, Shulman says tech companies no longer consider layoffs a sign of weakness.
“You go five years back, and no tech company would ever want to admit that they overhired or that they were not growing at astronomic pace – but now it seems it’s a badge of honor to be able to say ‘we’re getting more efficient, we’re laying off more employees,’” said Shulman.
Shulman adds that with so many lost jobs, the local economy will feel the impact.
“It affects our housing, it affects our small businesses, and it also affects the momentum of our region.”
KIRO 7 reached out to Meta about the layoffs, but did not get a response.
In a memo sent to employees last week, that was obtained by Reuters, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “It’s always sad to say goodbye to people who have contributed to our mission and to building this company. I feel the weight of that, and I’m spending a lot of time making sure we manage this as well as possible.”
In the memo, Meta said it does not foresee any more company-wide layoffs this year.
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