Meta fires 13% of their team, laying off over 11,000 employees

Meta is on a strive to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting off spending and extending its freeze on hiring, as a part of its efforts to reduce discretionary spending across owned apps and Reality Labs.

Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that his prediction of the inflated usage of social platforms being a permanent change and consequent expansion of the workforce has resulted in mass layoffs. As the rapid growth was short-lived and did not outlast the pandemic, resulting in revenue loss.

The reductions will impact every organization owned by Meta, across the apps and Reality Labs, and recruiting will be disproportionately affected with fewer hires next year, business teams would be restructured, real estate footprint will be shrunk, and more cost-cutting changes such as desk-sharing would be announced in the coming months.

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Infrastructure spending would be reviewed and going forward efforts would be focussed on fewer and prioritized goals. Zuckerberg said, "Fundamentally, we’re making all these changes for two reasons: our revenue outlook is lower than we expected at the beginning of this year, and we want to make sure we’re operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs".

In a statement to Meta employees, Zuckerberg mentioned, "I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted".