Over 11,000 staff members have been laid off by META

Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse has seen a series of negative developments as the company laid off 11,000 employees, including many from the Reality Labs division, representing a 13% cut.

The global pandemic had initially led to an increase in online revenue, prompting the company to hire new staff. However, the situation worsened in 2022 and Zuckerberg admitted that he had overestimated the duration of the pandemic’s impact on revenue.

In addition, Elon Musk fired around 3,700 people, or half the workforce, at Twitter, including many content monitors. Amazon also announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees, while other tech companies such as Cisco, Stripe, Shopify, Coinbase, ToGo, and Microsoft have also had to reduce their staff.

According to TrueUp’s online tech layoff tracker, 202,522 internet-based tech jobs have been lost worldwide as of mid-November 2022. While the tech industry is not the only sector facing economic challenges, it has often resorted to layoffs as a cost-cutting measure.

However, it should be noted that the unemployment rate for tech workers is still relatively low at 2.2%, below the national average, and the industry is able to easily hire in better times.

In the letter, Zuckerberg stated, “We have undergone some of the most challenging changes in Meta’s history and as a result, I have made the decision to decrease our team size by approximately 13% and unfortunately let go of over 11,000 skilled employees. Additionally, we are taking further measures to streamline and improve efficiency by cutting non-essential expenses and extending our hiring freeze until the first quarter.”

There has been concern among investors about the significant increase in Meta’s costs and expenses, which rose 19% compared to the previous year’s third quarter, totaling $22.1 billion. Additionally, the company’s overall sales decreased by 4% to $27.71 billion in the quarter, and its operating income plummeted 46% from the previous year to $5.66 billion