Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, said on Tuesday that it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after laying off 11,000 employees, in what was the first 'Big Tech' company to announce a second round of mass layoffs.

"We expect to reduce the size of our team by about 10,000 people and close about 5,000 additional open jobs for which we have not yet hired," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to employees, quoted by Reuters.

The layoffs are part of a wider restructuring at Meta, which will see the company flatten its organizational structure, cancel lower priority projects and reduce its hiring rates as part of the change. The news sparked a 2% rise in Meta's shares in pre-opening trading.

The move underlines Zuckerberg's drive to turn 2023 into the "Year of Efficiency", with promised cost cuts from 5 billion dollars in expenses to between 89 billion and 95 billion dollars.

A deteriorating economy has triggered a series of massive job cuts across corporate America: from Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to 'Big Tech' companies including Amazon.com and Microsoft.

The tech industry has laid off more than 280,000 workers since the start of 2022, with around 40% of them arriving this year, according to layoffs.fyi.

Meta, which is investing billions of dollars to build the futuristic metaverse, has been battling a post-pandemic slump in advertising spending by companies facing high inflation and rising interest rates.

Meta's move in November to reduce its headcount by 13% marked the first mass exodus in its 18-year history. Its headcount stood at 86,482 at the end of 2022, 20% more than a year ago.