Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will be laying off 11,000 workers.
“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,” Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees on Wednesday (November 9).
Zuckerberg took responsibility for putting Meta in a position to have to reduce the size of the company’s workforce.
“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online, and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” he explained.
“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. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
Zuckerberg said that employees who lose their job will receive a severance package that includes 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap. They will also get to keep their health insurance for six months, and Meta will pay them for any unused vacation days they still have.
“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.
Meta’s stock was up by six points in early morning trading, rising to more than $100 a share.
