Meta plans to lay off thousands of workers in a fresh round of job cuts

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms is planning a fresh round of layoffs that could affect thousands of workers just a few weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised no more layoffs, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the new job cuts are part of the company’s reorganization and downsizing effort. Last year, the social media giant said it will let go of 13% of its workforce, or more than 11,000 employees, as it grappled with soaring costs and a weak advertising market.

On November 9, Facebook’s Meta laid off 13% of its total workforce, or more than 11,000 employees, as it struggled with soaring costs and a weak advertising market. The company also lost $700 billion of its value over a risky metaverse bet.

Meta said the affected employees will receive 16 weeks of pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, Zuckerberg said. Meta will cover health insurance for six months. Zuckerberg also said the company spent around $3.7 billion in 2022 in paying out severance as well as terminating office leases.

“We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and when we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end,” Zuckerberg said. adding that further layers of middle management could still be trimmed.

In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced he was changing the name of the company he founded about two decades ago from Facebook to Meta to reflect its focus on the metaverse. During the speech, Zuckerberg described the metaverse as “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”

Since the rebrand, Meta has lost more than 70% of its value since peaking last year as all its business units continue to get pummeled on multiple fronts. The social giant has lost 70% of its value YTD as its stock falls from $300 to just $100.

But Meta believes the metaverse is a game-changing technology and believes the early mover advantage will potentially make Meta the first multi-trillion dollar company. While its stocks cratered,  Zuckerberg doubled down on losing even more money building the metaverse.

Meta also said it plans to invest $10 billion in the metaverse to reflect the company’s new vision. At the time, Meta said it plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build a “metaverse.” Zuckerberg added that the metaverse is a major investment for the company and plays a vital role in the company going forward.