Facebook parent Meta to lay off 11,000, 13% of workforce

Facebook parent Meta is laying off 11,000 people to cope with faltering revenue and broader tech industry woes, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced.

The job cuts, covering about 13 percent of its workforce, come just a week after Elon Musk implemented widespread layoffs at Twitter.

Numerous job cuts have been happening at companies that hired rapidly during the pandemic.

Zuckerberg said he decided to hire aggressively in anticipation of rapid growth even after the pandemic-induced lockdowns.

He admitted that his decision did not play out the way he expected, noting that online commerce returned to prior trends, macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss pulled down revenue to much lower than he expected.

Zuckerberg added that he takes responsibility for the wrong decision.

Meta enjoyed a financial boost during the pandemic as people stayed home and scrolled on their gadgets. But when people started going outside when the lockdowns ended, revenue growth began to falter.

Investors were also concerned on Meta investing over $10 billion a year into the metaverse.

Spooked investors have sent company shares tumbling more than 71 percent since the beginning of the year and the stock now trades at levels last seen in 2015.