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Paris (AFP) – For the first time since the creation of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg had to announce on November 9 the dismissal of employees, a total of 11,000, which corresponds to around 13% of the staff of Meta, the parent company of the network giant. social.
“Today I’m sharing with you some of the toughest changes we’ve ever made in Meta’s history,” Zuckerberg, the group’s chief executive, announced in a message to employees.
“I have decided to reduce the size of our team by approximately 13% and part with 11,000 of our talented employees,” he added.
Hiring within the group is also frozen until the end of March 2023.
This is the first major social plan in the history of the US technology group.
“I want to take responsibility for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is difficult for everyone, and I am especially sorry for those affected,” Zuckerberg said.
Meta did not immediately specify the geographic distribution of the job cuts.
As of September 30, Meta had some 87,000 employees worldwide on its different platforms, which also include the social networks Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp instant messaging.
The company recently posted disappointing quarterly results, with its turnover and profits falling, as well as user numbers stagnating.
This balance sheet accelerated the decline of the company’s stock, which has lost a total of more than 70% since the beginning of the year on the Nasdaq.
Zuckerberg had announced on that occasion that the number of employees in the group would not increase and could even decrease from then until the end of 2023.
Mass layoffs in the tech sector
In the United States, laid-off employees will receive 16 weeks of base pay and an additional two weeks of pay for each year of service.
The company will cover your health insurance for six months.
He also promised to help non-US employees with their work visa procedures.
The layoffs in Meta are part of a broader context of massive job cuts in the sector, faced above all with the slowdown in its advertising revenue, the livelihood of many technology companies.
At the end of August, Snap, the parent company of the Snapchat app, cut around 20% of its staff, or more than 1,200 employees.
Last week, two Silicon Valley companies, Stripe (online payments) and Lyft (car reservations with a driver), reported mass layoffs while Amazon froze hiring at its offices.
Twitter, newly acquired by Elon Musk, just laid off around half of its 7,500 employees.
On Wall Street, where Meta’s announcement was widely anticipated, the group’s stock was up just over 4% in pre-open electronic trading.
“This is a sad time and there’s no getting around it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “To those who are leaving, I want to thank you once again for all your contributions,” he added.
