Meta to start laying off thousands this week

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: It seems Meta is the latest company affected by this fall's tech sector employment crunch. The recent macroeconomic slowdown hasn't been good for Meta, but the company's heavy investment in the Metaverse hasn't helped its profits and stock price either.

Sources have told The Wall Street Journal that Meta will start massive layoffs as soon as Wednesday. Thousands of employees could lose their jobs in the largest-ever headcount reduction for a major tech company.

Meta hired tens of thousands of employees over the last three years. This week's broad reductions -- the first in Meta's history -- may be a sign that it grew too quickly.

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, pointing back to Mark Zuckerberg's comments during a late October Q3 earnings call. Zuckerberg tried to downplay the size of the layoffs, saying some teams within Meta will grow or shrink, leaving the company the same size or somewhat smaller by the end of 2023.

Towards the end of October, Meta reported Q3 income and revenue down by billions along with over half a trillion dollars in lost market value over the last year. The company's stock has also plummeted since last September. Many blame the trouble on Meta's investments in Metaverse division Reality Labs, which has bled billions throughout 2021 and 2022.

Zuckerberg believes wholeheartedly that the Metaverse is the future, renaming his company after it. Others, however, think that most Metaverse business endeavors will close within a few years.

Even if the company's VR/AR ambitions are dragging it down, Meta isn't alone in this fall's belt-tightening trend. Amazon announced a hiring freeze last week, blaming macroeconomic turbulence.

Also last week, new Twitter owner Elon Musk parted ways with half the company's staff in a bid to cut costs against the debt he saddled Twitter with after buying the company for $44 billion. However, failing to give employees the legally-required advance notice triggered a class-action lawsuit. Twitter may even have to re-hire some workers either because they were laid off by mistake, or the company now realizes their importance.

Job squeezes at all these companies come against the backdrop of a general post-pandemic hangover in multiple tech sectors. Customer enthusiasm for PC components, tablets, phones, and Chromebooks has fallen recently, as many fear a looming recession.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96580-meta-start-laying-off-thousands-week.html

 

[nnguy2]

All the billions invested in the Metaverse and it looks like a bad Wii game from 2006.

 

[winjer]

They should start with Zuckerberg, since he is the one costing the most to the company.

 

[Uncle Al]

Days like today make me glad I'm retired and no longer in that rat race ....

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Could you imagine that 3 years ago when you landed a job with Facebook/Meta you were super stoked! Big company, deep pockets and lots backing them....who would have thought that Mark would have tanked on the Metaverse so hard that you'd be hoping your job wasn't on the line 3 years later?

What a cluster F he's turned this company into. I've personally never been a fan of social media, even back when MySpace was the thing to be part of so it doesn't hurt my feelings any if this company crashes and burns. I just feel bad for the people he's f'ing over because of his narrowed sightedness.

 

[Hodor]

He's laying them off IRL, but he'll employ them back virtually. They'll get excellent virtual salaries, so they can buy expensive virtual Lambos, condos in good hoods, and best virtual food that virtual money can buy.

Note:
Thick virtual steaks, fried in virtual butter, covered with melted virtual cheese, still contain zero calories

 

[Avro Arrow]

At some point, people are going to realise that capitalism no longer works. I can't wait to see the result.

 

[someOtherGuy]

At some point, people are going to realise that capitalism no longer works. I can't wait to see the result.

Virtual capitalism, yes, it's a hard sell but it went on the NFT/Crypto wave until " enough people" started asking "what's valuable about that?".

 

[RudyBob]

And how did you vote at the last Economic election. Jobs or " I wanna feel good"

 

[AlaskaGuy]

At some point, people are going to realise that capitalism no longer works. I can't wait to see the result.

I can only guess the job(s) you've held. Capitalism has done more to advance technology than any other system.

 

[torchyear]

They should start with Zuckerberg, since he is the one costing the most to the company.

Unfortunately this won’t be happening despite Zuck being a minority shareholder. Most of the public shares (held by the majority shareholders) don’t have any voting power due to the agreement concerning Zuck retaining ‘super voting’ rights.

(Or maybe it’s for the best - no one can stop him running the company off the cliff.)

 

[gabelogan1324]

Days like today make me glad I'm retired and no longer in that rat race ....

racing to get there with ya!

 

[Avro Arrow]

Virtual capitalism, yes, it's a hard sell but it went on the NFT/Crypto wave until " enough people" started asking "what's valuable about that?".

No, I mean Neo-Liberal capitalism. Capitalism is ok as long as the country practices Keynesian Economics. The problem is that some countries (the USA and Canada being two of them) abandoned Keynesian Economics in favour of Neo-Liberalism. Keynesian Economics were brought in by Roosevelt via the "New Deal" in the USA while Canada historically always employed Keynesian Economics. This is why the two countries were so economically strong through most of the 20th-Century. Then they switched to Neo-Liberalism (the USA did about 20 years before Canada did) and look at the results. US society is already falling apart and Canada's is starting to trend in that same direction.

Neo-Liberalism took the advantages that capitalism already had for the rich and the disadvantages that capitalism already had for the poor and dialed it up to 11. Of course, greedy rich people love it despite the damage it causes to the economy. Back in the day (like around the time I was born) Keynesian Economics were used to mitigate the worst parts of capitalism while Neo-Liberalism only amplifies them. Most of Europe still practices Keynesian Economics which is why they outperform the USA and Canada in almost every metric. The European countries that are the farthest away from NeoLiberalism are the Nordic countries of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Is it any wonder that they're the most prosperous countries in Europe?

I'll be alright though, I'm also a citizen of the UK and (more importantly) Ireland so I can always just go live in Europe if things go past a certain point here in Canada.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Days like today make me glad I'm retired and no longer in that rat race ....

Retirement? Yeah, I'll be able to retire when my parents die (I'd rather keep working forever than have that happen but it's inevitable) but I feel really bad for the members of Gen-Y and Z because the Boomers really sold them up the river. Most of them will never be able to retire.

So, consider yourself to be one lucky bastahd!

 

[captaincranky]

Note:
Thick virtual steaks, fried in virtual butter, covered with melted virtual cheese, still contain zero calories

In addition, they eliminate the need for a statin drug as the new after dinner mint. That's even if you do splurge on virtual cheesecake for dessert.

 

[NewSparrow]

Seems like Meta/Facebook is becoming the next MySpace

 

[Avro Arrow]

Seems like Meta/Facebook is becoming the next MySpace

Yep, and Twitter's joining it.

 

[Hodor]

Seems like Meta/Facebook is becoming the next MySpace

Why, is there something wrong with MySpace?

I just recently started using it and I think it's very cool. I also tried that new thing, Friendster, but seems a bit childish to me. Maybe teenagers and hipsters will like it, but I don't see a bright future for it.

Facetbook... I don't even know what's that. Probably something still in beta.