Facebook Owner, Meta, To Lay Off 11,000 Workers

Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced that it will cut 13 per cent of its workforce.

In total 11,000 employees are to be laid off from its worldwide headcount of 87,000 people. The job losses will impact full-time Meta employees in Ireland, but will not affect contract workers employed by third-parties.

In a statement, Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said the cuts were some of the most difficult changes the company has made in history.

Zuckerberg said, “Today I am sharing some of the most difficult changes we have made in Meta’s history. I have decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13 per cent and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go.

“We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”

Meta becomes the latest tech giant to lay off staff, following recent job losses at Lyft and Stripe.

Twitter also last week pledged to cut half of its 7,500-strong workforce.