美国国家公共电台 NPR--Facebook's parent company Meta is laying off another 10,000 workers

Facebook's parent company Meta is laying off another 10,000 workers

Transcript¹

NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks to Wall Street Journal reporter Sam Schechner about the layoffs² which will cut about 12% of Meta's workforce³. This round follows a previous cut of 11,000 jobs.

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

Meta is planning a second round of layoffs. That's the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. And it announced yesterday it will cut another 10,000 jobs. This follows 11,000 layoffs at Meta last November. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that 2023 will be Meta's, quote, "year of efficiency." He also says it will be, in his words, stronger and more nimble. We're joined now by Wall Street Journal technology reporter Sam Schechner. Sam, thanks for coming on.

SAM SCHECHNER: A pleasure to be here.

PFEIFFER: These are a lot of layoffs, but I want to make sure we put it in the overall context of how large Meta is. So tell us, how many employees does it have now? How many will it have left once the layoffs are done?

SCHECHNER: Well, those are good questions. We know the numerator. We don't necessarily know the denominator. At the end of the year, Meta had roughly 86,000 employees. Most of those who are being laid off - the 11,000 from last fall - were still on the payroll⁴, the company said. So if we're going by that and we add it together - you know, 21,000 people being let go - that could be nearly a quarter of Meta's workforce.

PFEIFFER: That's a lot. And how big a deal do you think that is in terms of the impact it has on the company?

SCHECHNER: Well, I mean, you can see it from - people inside the company are anxious. You know, Mark Zuckerberg sends a message to staff, and it's 2,200 words long. And, you know, there's some mea culpas in there. But there's also this vision that he's trying to get across of a leaner, more nimble company. And he's actually, at points in this memo⁵, talking about how he thinks it will - and is making things operate more efficiently⁶, more effectively than before.

PFEIFFER: During the pandemic, Meta and many other tech companies were just hiring madly. So are these layoffs essentially⁷ returning Meta to its pre-pandemic level, or do you see it going deeper than that? Any idea?

SCHECHNER: Well, we'll have to see where it ends up landing. But, you know, Mark Zuckerberg, in this memo, what struck me is that he said that this is something that he sees continuing for many years. It's a new economic reality. And I think that's a real tone shift from the go-go times in - at least for the earnings⁸ of tech companies during the pandemic, as you said, when Meta was counting on - and a lot of tech companies were counting on - a fundamental change in the way people operate. And that hasn't really panned out. And so now...

PFEIFFER: That it might have been just temporary.

SCHECHNER: Well, it appears to have been, at least in some ways, temporary. Even Meta's reversing its position on remote work in some ways and encouraging people to come back to the office.

PFEIFFER: Interesting. You know, Zuckerberg has said things like the layoffs were caused by things like rising interest rates, geopolitical tension, new regulations. Do you, Sam, based on your reporting, buy that? Do you believe that - those reasons?

SCHECHNER: I think those confluence⁹ of factors certainly are playing a role. And I think - you mentioned regulations. You know, Meta has to comply with a growing number of new rules and regulations. You know, there's new regulations coming into effect in the European Union that are going to require some big changes to how the company operates. There's changes that they've had to make because of, you know, privacy moves by Apple to cut off some of the data that they've been using that have also cut into their revenue. So I think all of those things together are factors.

PFEIFFER: Yeah, about those privacy settings - so Apple made a change that restricts the amount of data that apps collect. That has apparently¹⁰ hurt Meta's bottom line significantly - something like 10 billion in lost revenue last year. So has Apple really hurt Meta significantly by tweaking iPhone privacy options?

SCHECHNER: I mean, Meta has, you know, gone through an entire internal process to try to cope with these changes. This has been a major, major issue for their advertising¹¹ business. In more recent quarters, they've said they've begun to see a path to recovery because they're using AI to help make up for some of that lost data, to infer some of the targeting information that they no longer can collect from their users' phones. You know, still, their revenue was down year on year in their most recent report.

PFEIFFER: Yeah. Last big-picture question, maybe 20 seconds or so - do you assume that other tech companies internally are now facing the same type of financial pressures Meta says it is?

SCHECHNER: Well, we've seen these kinds of layoffs ripple¹² across Silicon¹³ Valley. And I think, you know, we've seen one round at a lot of big companies. May we see more? I think there is definitely pressure from investors¹⁴ and a new - you know, the era of free money is over for these Big Tech companies.

PFEIFFER: That's Sam Schechner. He covers technology for The Wall Street Journal. Sam, thank you.

SCHECHNER: A pleasure to be here.

(SOUNDBITE OF FATB AND DRYHOPE'S "UNRAVEL")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

4 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

5 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

6 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

9 confluence   

n.汇合，聚集

参考例句：

• They built the city at the confluence of two rivers.他们建造了城市的汇合两条河流。
• The whole DV movements actually was a confluence of several trends.整个当时的DV运动，实际上是几股潮流的同谋。

10 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

11 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

12 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

13 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

14 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会