Meta Reportedly Preparing to Lay Off Thousands

Facebook owner Meta is reportedly set to begin massive layoffs this week, a first at that scale in the company’s history and the latest in a spate of job cuts in the tech sector.

According to a Sunday (Nov. 6), Wall Street Journal report, sources familiar with the matter say the layoffs are expected to impact several thousand workers and could be announced as soon as Wednesday (Nov. 9). The sources said Meta has told employees to cancel non-essential travel starting this week.

The WSJ noted that the layoffs would mark the first time Meta has made wide-scale job cuts in its 18 years in operation. It could represent the largest round of layoffs at a big tech company, surpassing the recent 3,700 people let go by Twitter.

This year has already seen Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announce plans to freeze hiring and restructure some teams, which will help reduce some expenses and “realign priorities,” with the company likely to be smaller next year.

During a September Q&A session with employees, the Facebook founder said the company plans to cut budgets for most of its teams — even those that are growing.

“I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now,” Zuckerberg said. “But from what we’re seeing, it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively.”

Read more: Metaverse Alliance Seeks Interoperability Standards as Meta Shareholders Rage

As PYMNTS noted last week, Meta’s shareholders have expressed frustration recently as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has done little to ease their fears that the social media giant’s ballooning and money-losing metaverse project is putting the company’s future in jeopardy.

Zuckerberg doubled down on the company’s Oct. 26 earnings call, stressing that metaverse spending will not only continue but actually grow, even though its Reality Labs division is on track to lose $12 billion to $15 billion this year.

Following Meta’s earnings announcement, the company’s stock fell another 24%, extending its year-long slump to more than 70% and leading to Zuckerberg being called “tone-deaf” by “disgusted” institutional investors.