Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, announced Wednesday it was laying off 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce. It’s the first major layoff in the company’s history.
“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an open letter to staff. “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.”
Zuckerberg went on to say that pandemic-era trends did not ultimately play out the way he had expected, with the surge in e-commerce and the resultant revenue boost returning to pre-Covid levels.
“We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint,” the famously hoody-clad tech founder wrote.
Meta employees who are dismissed will get 16 weeks of severance plus two weeks for every year of service. The company is also offering immigration support for the many workers in the U.S. on a work visa.
The Bay Area has been slammed by tech layoffs over the past week, with Twitter’s new CEO making huge cuts, Salesforce dismissing hundreds of workers and companies including Lyft and Stripe also making deep cuts.