Meta Lays Off 11,000 Employees in Historic Restructuring

Any thoughts Meta might make through the 2022 layoff scourge intact evaporated on November 9. Following months of hints, Meta finally revealed it would lay off a staggering 11,000 employees, or around 13% of tis workforce, in the first major mass layoff in the company’s history. The layoffs were the result of stagnating user growth and an over eager pivot to “the metaverse,” and saw its stock lose 70% of its value this year.

“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”

The layoffs came months after Meta announced a company-wide hiring freeze. Zuckerberg dropped the hiring freeze news, according to Bloomberg, during a company wide Q&A with staff. In addition to the hiring freeze, Zuckerberg said teams should expect budget cuts, even amongst those still growing. The CEO reportedly told staff to expect less overall staff at the company next year. Overall, Bloomberg notes, the belt-tightening amounts to the first major budget cuts in Meta’s 18-year history.

The budget cuts don’t come as a surprise. Back in July the company, which just burned $10 billion on a metaverse that doesn’t exist, said it would slash hiring of new engineers by around 30%. Around that same time, a senior executive sent out an email to managers telling them to “move to exit,” poor-performing employees. And while layoffs haven’t happened yet, Zuckerberg’s signaled they are a possibility and even tried to encourage some lower-performing employees to do the dirty work for him.

“I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is okay with me,” Zuckerberg said in a leaked Q&A. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”