Meta Axes Over 1,000 Workers across Three NYC Offices
The tech titan announced it was laying off 10 percent of its 79,000 workforce back in May, but it was not until Aug. 20 that the company acknowledged how deep the cuts were going to be in its three Manhattan offices.
Less than a week before Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle social media addiction case involving 52 attorneys general, it quietly axed over 1,000 people who work at Meta’s three Manhattan offices
The cuts are the results of the sweeping layoffs the Mark Zuckerberg-led company revealed back in May it when it said it was axing 8,000 workers, or just over 10 percent of its 79,000 worldwide employees.
At the time, it did not say which offices would be hit but said it was making the cuts to run the company “more efficiently” as it redirected resources to AI.
The exact number in Manhattan was only revealed in a NYS Labor Dept. WARN notice posted Aug. 20. It amounted to 1,160 workers who were permanently laid off in New York, “effective immediately.”
That accounts for to 14.5 percent of the 8,000 workers who were being laid off, which means the cuts in the Manhattan offices were deeper than cuts in other Meta offices.
The layoffs were in two offices in Chelsea and an office in the East Village offices. The cuts included 417 people at the 380 West 33rd St. office, 389 people at the 770 Broadway office near East 8th Street and 354 people at 415 Tenth Avenue near West 30th Street.
The company has been under fire recently from 49 state attorneys general in a landmark social media addiction case that claimed that Facebook and Instagram “used its technology and social media platforms ... to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens.”
On Aug. 26, Meta agreed to pay out up $18 billion settlement in a bid to avoid going to jury trial in the northern district of California. California state attorney general Rob Bonta led the coalition of attorneys general saying it designed programs that violated privacy laws and that it used features to deliberately keep children involved longer.
After initially fighting against the lawsuit filed, in Supreme Court in Oakland, CA., Meta agreed to new stricter guidelines and is now pushing TikTok and YouTube to follow its lead in enforcing strict criteria for teen users of the social media network. Among the items Meta agreed to involving teen users: a two-hour daily time limit; turning off access to apps at night as a default; prompts and notifications to teens every 15 minutes of continuous screen time; and new parental supervision controls.
The company is rolling out a national ad campaign on the topic which included an “open letter” to TikTok and YouTube in a full page ad in the New York Times.
The company had not responded to an inquiry from Straus News on the New York City cutbacks.
The cuts were first unveiled in an internal memo from Chief People Officer Janelle Gale was sent to all Meta employees worldwide on April 24, 2026. Meta said employed 78,931 full-time staff as of December 31, 2025, per its 10-K filing.
“This is not an easy tradeoff and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here,” Gale wrote at the time. The memo said action was designed so that Meta could “run the company more efficiently” as resources are redirected to “the next phase of our AI work.”
The company posted $201 billion in revenue in 2025 but its net income was down 3 percent due to AI investments.
In the second quarter ending June 30, which included the layoff announcement, revenue surged t28 percent to $60.8 billion but net income was down 13.6 percent to $15.85 billion as costly AI investments devoured cash flow.
The company said its headcount was 75,472 as of June 30, 2026, a decrease of one percent year-over-year.