Because of some recent financial losses, Facebook parent company Meta has confirmed that mass layoffs are coming in the near future. Mark Zuckerberg revealed Meta's Metaverse earlier this year with a lackluster presentation that has caused many investors to pull out of the Facebook parent company due to how much money has already been invested into the project, which may be why the layoffs are coming.
Meta confirmed in a statement today that it will be laying off more than 11,000 employees and the company will be extending its hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023. Facebook saw impressive rises on the stock market for several years after going public, a trend that only ceased noticeably with the disastrous Metaverse showcase and details about the project that have come out since. Although multiple companies like Microsoft, Tencent, and Roblox are working on their own metaverses, the overall idea is seen by industry leaders like Phil Spencer as technology that's not ready yet.
Though it largely avoids delving into financial losses linked to the Facebook Metaverse, the Meta layoff statement pointed to gambles made during the pandemic that caused the company to invest in ways that didn't pan out. Shouldering the responsibility for making such gambles, the Metaverse, and more, Mark Zuckerberg has stated that the remaining employees will be moved to teams that work on things like the AI discovery engine, ads, and business platforms. According to the Meta statement, the 11,000 employees that are being laid off will get 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service which may help them as they try to find a new employer.
Meta isn't the only social media company that's had to lay off employees recently as Twitter has also undergone many changes since Elon Musk took over last month. The layoff statement confirmed that employees across the Meta family of apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will be cut and that Reality Labs will be seeing similar adjustments in the same time frame. Despite the cost, Meta has confirmed that investment into the Metaverse will continue which may be something that investors respond to as the layoffs follow the plummeting of Meta stock which has seen a decrease of around $676 billion in value this year.
As many social media users have expressed their condolences for Meta employees that are losing their jobs, others have lamented the amount of unemployment that's being generated between Facebook, Twitter, and other companies doing layoffs. Some investors took the opportunity to state their own losses with the consistently sliding Meta stock, while a handful of people celebrated the market changes as post-pandemic balancing.
Source: Meta