Meta to Layoff Thousands of Employees this Week

Meta, a tech giant, will be cutting thousands of employees this week, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing people involved with the matter. Meta has over 87,000 employees and the layoffs could stand to be some of the largest employee layoffs at a big tech firm.

The layoff comes two months after the implementation of a hiring freeze by Meta in September. The firm noted it will make cutbacks in costs by 10% partly due to staff reduction.

Meta is not alone in cutting down employees. Other Web3 firms such as Bitmex, Dapper Labs, and Mythical Games, all laid off employees at the start of the month. Many other tech firms have cut down staff as the business environment turn tumultuous.

Meta struggled uniquely to make its metaverse-focused business model take off after doubling down on its metaverse effort since October 2021. Metaverse arm Reality Labs of Meta lost $3.7 billion in the third quarter of this year, with a year-to-date loss of $9.4 billion.

According to the WSJ report, the tech giant has also fallen short on user count goals for its flagship Horizon Worlds initiative.