Facebook parent firm Meta cuts 11,000 jobs

New York, November 9

Facebook parent Meta is laying off 11,000 people, about 13% of its workforce, as it contends with faltering revenue and broader tech industry woes, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees on Wednesday. The job cuts come just a week after widespread layoffs at Twitter under its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk.

There have been numerous job cuts at other tech companies that hired rapidly during the pandemic.

Zuckerberg as well said he had made the decision to hire aggressively, anticipating rapid growth even after the pandemic ended. “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” 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, like other social media companies, enjoyed a financial boost during the pandemic lockdown era because more people stayed home and scrolled on their phones and computers. But as the lockdowns ended and people started going outside again, revenue growth began to falter. — AP  

First quarterly revenue decline

• An economic slowdown and a grim outlook for online advertising — by far Meta’s biggest revenue source — have contributed to Meta’s woes
• This summer, Meta posted its first quarterly revenue decline in history, followed by another, bigger decline in the fall
• Some of the pain is company-specific, while some is tied to broader economic and technological forces