Facebook’s parent company Meta has announced it will be laying off around 13% of its staff.  

More than 11,000 employees will lose their jobs in various levels at the company, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter to employees on Wednesday. 

In the letter, the Meta CEO said: “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.  

“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,” he added. 

Staff at the company knew jobs cuts were coming, as news earlier in the week revealed that a drop in profits would force the company’s hand. 

Late October revealed a major drop in its fourth-quarter earnings that spooked investors and caused its shares to sink nearly 20%. 

Meta has had a turbulent few weeks, with news of share prices dropping and expenses rising as Zuckerberg puts focus on his metaverse project. 

Expenses at the company have jumped by nearly a quarter (19%) year-over-year in the third quarter to $22.1 billion, while its operating income dropped 46% from the previous year to $5.66 billion. 

In his letter, Zuckerberg apologised to the affected staff, saying that he intended to “take accountability” for these decisions: “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” 

Zuckerberg added that the firm would be reducing staff numbers “in every organisation” across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, some teams “will be affected more than others.” 

“Recruiting will be disproportionately affected since we’re planning to hire fewer people next year. We’re also restructuring our business teams more substantially,” he said. 

As well as the reduction in staff, Zuckerberg noted that Meta plans to extend its hiring freeze through the first quarter with a few exceptions. 

“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. 

Impacted employees will receive 16 weeks of pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, Zuckerberg said. Meta will cover health insurance for six months. 

The firm has been investing heavily in its metaverse project, which Zuckerberg views as “the next chapter for the internet”. 

However, the price tag for Meta’s focus on the emerging technology has cost around $9.4 billion so far this year, and the company anticipates that losses “will grow significantly year-over-year.” 

Zuckerberg said during a call with analysts as part of its third-quarter earnings report that Meta plans to “focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas” during the next year. 

“That means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” Zuckerberg said.  

“In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today,” he added. 

As well as this massive expenditure, the company will undoubtedly have suffered from the current global economic downturn, as well as changes to Apple’s privacy policies. 

An investigation by The Financial Times last year found that social platform, including Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, lost around $9.85 billion in revenue following noted changes to Apple’s privacy practices. 

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Commenting on the Meta job losses, founder of employment law specialists Bellevue Law Florence Brocklesby said: “Redundancies are, sadly, a fact of life, and delivering difficult news is never easy.   

“But how a restructuring is conducted is hugely important, not only for those leaving the business, but also for those who remain and the company’s wider reputation.  Good processes combined with humanity are key to navigating a challenging time safely and with dignity. 

“Twitter’s handling of its current restructuring has shone a light on how redundancies in the tech sector should – and should not – be handled. Just a few days ago Twitter announced plans to let go of 50% of its staff, with swathes of employees finding themselves suddenly locked out of company systems. Meta needs to avoid making those same mistakes today.” 

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