Meta Bloodbath Begins: 11,000 Employees Sacked, Hiring on Hold

After days of speculation, Meta on Wednesday announced that it will reduce 13% of its workforce and will let go of about 11,000 employees. The mass layoff comes in the backdrop of the company's ‘goal to become agile’. The tech giant plans to continue with the hiring freeze, which has been in effect since Q1. 

During the pandemic, Meta made various investments, but unfortunately, none worked in its favour. The company has hinted at the current macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss leading to the current crisis, wherein their revenues fell lower than expected. 

Read: After Ruining Meta’s Business, Apple Now Wants to do More Ads 

Meta also announced that it would be restructuring its resources by deploying them towards priority growth areas which include AI discovery engine, ads and business platforms, and the metaverse. The company said that the layoffs have been their last resort to cut costs after scaling down their budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking their real-estate footprint. 

The employees are slated to receive emails notifying them of their employment status. The terminated employees will receive additional support in the form of severance pay, career support, health and immigration support, among other things. 

Outside the US, the company will take proceedings in accordance with the local employment laws. The employees who left on Wednesday had their access removed immediately, with only their email remaining active for the day for others to bid them farewell. 

The mass layoff will be across both their Family of Apps and Reality Labs. However, it also said that recruiting will be impacted by the current layoffs since they don’t intend to hire many in the coming quarters.  

Read: After Twitter, Meta Succumbs to Mass Layoffs 

In the Q3 earnings report, Meta revealed a revenue drop of 49%. This comes after the company significantly increased its expenditure towards the metaverse project with no substantial return on investment.