Meta layoffs: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp to start cost-cutting today: All you need to know

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, plans to start mass layoffs on November 9 as part of a cost-cutting strategy in response to dismal profitability and a decline in sales, people with knowledge of the situation have claimed.

Late in September, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg informed staff that Meta planned to reduce spending and reorganise teams. A recruiting freeze was established by the Menlo Park, California-based business, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. According to the CEO, Meta expects headcount to be lower in 2023 than it is in 2022.

In order to prepare the executives for the layoffs, Zuckerberg spoke with them on November 8 and said that the impacted employees would start receiving notifications on November 9, according to the individuals, who wished to remain anonymous because they were sharing sensitive information.

The Wall Street Journal claims that, during the executive call, Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the business's "missteps". A Meta spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to Bloomverg’s request for comment.

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The company, which had over 87,000 employees as of September 30, expects the cuts to touch around 10% of its workforce, according to Insider. The reductions—part of the first significant budget cut since Facebook's foundation in 2004—reflect a steep slowdown in digital advertising revenue, an economy teetering on the verge of recession, and Zuckerberg's significant investment in a speculative virtual-reality push known as the metaverse.

The layoffs at Meta come after those at Twitter, which last week eliminated almost 50% of its personnel after selling itself to Elon Musk. Those layoffs were chaotic, and many workers discovered they were no longer employed when their access to Slack or email was suddenly shut off. Musk claimed that the actions were required to stop the social network's losses. Later, he asked a few sacked employees to come back.

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“More recently our revenue has been flat to slightly down for the first time. So we have to adjust,” Zuckerberg said in September.

(With agency inputs)