Facebook’s parent company Meta today announced that it would be firing more than 11,000 employees, in a bid to reduce costs following a less-than-impressive quarter showing.
This follow layoffs at other major tech companies including Elon Musk-owned Twitter.
‘Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go,” Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post today.
‘We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1,’ Zuckerberg added.
Employees would get 16 weeks of base pay along with two additional weeks for every year of service, along with six months healthcare, as part of the severance package.
Facebook has seen drops in digital advertising revenue, as Zuckerberg’s heavy investment in the metaverse, along with rising inflation and an impending recession made matters worse.
Zuckerberg said Meta would shift resources to ‘high priority growth areas’ such as its AI discovery engine, ads and business platforms and of course the ‘metaverse,’ as it aims to become more capital-efficient.