Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said on Wednesday that it will slash around 13% of its global workforce as it looks to cut costs.
In a message to employees, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company will be letting go of more than 11,000 people. Those affected will be paid 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap.
In the US, Meta will continue to cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.
“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,” Zuckerberg said.
“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.”
Meta highlighted a “meaningful cultural shift” in how it operates. For example, it said it will be transitioning to desk-sharing for people who already spend most of their time outside the office. The firm is also extending its hiring freeze through the first quarter, with a small number of exceptions.
“I’m going to watch our business performance, operational efficiency, and other macroeconomic factors to determine whether and how much we should resume hiring at that point,” Zuckerberg said.
“This will give us the ability to control our cost structure in the event of a continued economic downturn. It will also put us on a path to achieve a more efficient cost structure than we outlined to investors recently.”
Last week, Elon Musk took an axe to nearly half the jobs at Twitter after completing his $44bn takeover over the social media platform.
