Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced that it will cut 13% of its workforce.
In total 11,000 employees are to be laid off from its worldwide headcount of 87,000 people.
In a statement, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts were “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. 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 said in a letter to employees.
Zuckerberg attributes the decision to lay off employees to the start of Covid when the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth.
He claims that revenue has been significantly lower than he had anticipated as a result of the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss at the company.
“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” Zuckerberg said.
According to Zuckerberg, Meta is making cuts across all of its organizations, but recruiting will be particularly hard hit because the company intends to hire fewer people in 2023. With a few exceptions, the company continued its hiring freeze through the first quarter.
“This is a sad moment, and there’s no way around that. To those who are leaving, I want to thank you again for everything you’ve put into this place,” he added.
Employees who are impacted will receive 16 weeks of pay in addition to two extra weeks for each year of service, according to Zuckerberg. For six months, Meta will pay for their health insurance.
Meta counts over 87,000 employees as of the end of September.
