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Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg confirms mass layoffs at Meta

By Nithya Bose in US Employment News, posted November 9, 2022

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg warned hundreds of executives about massive layoffs at the company.

The staff cuts will be the largest in the tech industry and will start today (Wednesday, November 9) in the morning.

The business and recruitment teams are likely to be the most affected.

Sources said Zuckerberg has admitted accountability for the company's slum and that he admits that his over-optimism of growth has resulted in overstaffing.

Lori Goler, Meta's Human Resources chief, said that those who lose their jobs will be given at least four months' pay as severance.

At the end of September, the Facebook parent had almost 87,000 workers.

After a big spike of success as the world stayed indoors during the pandemic, the tech sector has seen a major setback in recent months.

A global economic crisis, soaring interest rates, and regulatory challenges have prompted big businesses like Alphabet and Amazon to halt or quit hiring.

Snap slashed 1,300 employees and reduced investments in late August.

In October, Microsoft fired around 1,000 employees across different divisions.

Following Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter takeover, the firm wiped out half of its employees last week.

In recent months, Meta has battled uncertainty over the company's future.

Its flagship Facebook is now losing young users and is now facing revenue challenges as Apple's privacy policies change.

In the meantime, investors appear to be skeptical of the company's metaverse pivot.

Investors axed the company's market value by $80 billion last month after it disclosed that profits had been cut in half during the third quarter.

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It was one of the most drastic devaluations observed on Wall Street since the beginning of the year.

Meta's third-quarter profits were the latest in a string of poor results.

It lost $230 billion in market value in February, the worst one-day drop in US corporate history.

Meta had signaled job losses after declaring a hiring freeze and possible restructuring in September.