Meta reportedly announced a hiring freeze and warned employees of restructuring

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly announced a hiring freeze to employees on Thursday.

• He also said most team budgets would be reduced.

• Zuckerberg had previously said that many teams would "shrink" this year.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, reportedly told employees on Thursday that it is implementing a hiring freeze and warned of more restructuring and downsizing.

Bloomberg reported that CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the hiring freeze during a weekly Q&A session with staffers. He said that most team budgets would be reduced.

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment to Insider; a spokesperson also had declined to comment for Bloomberg.

"I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, but from what we're seeing it doesn't yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively," Zuckerberg told employees, according to Bloomberg.

The announcement follows a Wall Street Journal report last week that Meta was putting some employees on a list that gave them 30 days to find a new role within the company or leave amid cost-saving efforts.

"Our plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year," Zuckerberg had said in a July earnings call. "Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company."

Insider's Kali Hays and Rob Price had first reported in May that Meta would implement a major hiring freeze, based on internal memos.

"We're facing headwinds including slower revenue growth than anticipated at the start of the year," CFO David Wehner wrote in a memo to employees, which Insider obtained.

This week also marked longtime operating chief Sheryl Sandberg's last day at the Meta offices on Tuesday. Sandberg had been COO for 14 years when she announced in June she would exit the company.

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