Meta confirms global job losses will hit UK's 5,000-strong workforce

‘I got this wrong, I apologise’: Mark Zuckerberg says sorry as Meta confirms global job losses will hit UK’s 5,000-strong workforce as Facebook and Instagram owner announces 11,000 layoffs worldwide with 1,000 tipped to go in Ireland

• Mark Zuckerberg said he had decided to reduce the team by about 13 per cent
• His message to employees could mean there will be 650 job losses in the UK 
• In recent days, Indian software engineers said their offers have been pulled
• Meta has allegedly already begun restructuring its team in European HQ Ireland

Meta has confirmed global job losses will hit the UK’s 5,000-strong workforce as the owner of Facebook and Instagram announced 11,000 layoffs worldwide with 1,000 tipped to go in Ireland.

Mark Zuckerberg, 38, apologised for ‘getting it wrong’ after employees were informed about the cuts in a company-wide email at 11am on Wednesday.

In a message to Meta employees, Zuckerberg said that he had decided to reduce the size of the team by about 13 per cent, which could mean there will be 650 job losses in the UK.

Are you a Meta worker who has been affected?

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook’s UK employee headcount swelled from 3,745 in 2020 to 5,148 in 2021, with the vast majority based in London.  

Meta said it would pay 16 weeks of base pay to those affected in the US plus two additional weeks for every year of service as a part of the severance package and all remaining paid time off. 

The company said that the arrangements would be similar elsewhere, though it was unclear how many UK jobs would be affected. 

In the last few days, several Indian software engineers have said their offers have been pulled.

One user tweeted: ‘My Meta offer was pulled off recently too. I was supposed to relocate to London from India. 

‘I had cleared background check, my VISA was approved and my BRP had arrived at the UK office address. And just three weeks before my joining date, they pulled it off.’

Another said: ‘I have a very close friend in Meta. He moved to London, few months back and was having a ball over there. 

‘Often he urged me to come over to Meta, and enjoy London. Now as he speaks dejected, I come to know Meta is planning a huge layoff by this week. I am speechless.’ 

Meta has confirmed global job losses will hit the UK’s 5,000-strong workforce as the owner of Facebook and Instagram announced 11,000 layoffs worldwide with 1,000 tipped to go in Ireland 

In a message to Meta employees, Mark Zuckerberg, 38, said that he had decided to reduce the size of the team by about 13 per cent, which could mean there will be 650 job losses in the UK

Facebook’s UK employee headcount swelled from 3,745 in 2020 to 5,148 in 2021, with the vast majority based in London

In the last few days, several Indian software engineers have said their offers have been pulled

One user tweeted: ‘My Meta offer was pulled off recently too. I was supposed to relocate to London from India’

In Ireland, where Meta has its European HQ, the company has already begun restructuring its content moderation team, according to Sky News.

The Irish Times reported that the company could be seeking to shed up to 1,000 roles from its Irish operations.

It employs more than 3,000 people directly in Ireland, with an additional 6,000 people employed at operations across multiple sites including Meta’s international headquarters in Dublin, Clonee data centre in Co Meath and Reality Labs in Cork.

A Meta spokesperson told MaiOnline: ‘We’re not sharing UK figures, but as Mark noted – “outside the US, support will be similar, and we’ll follow up soon with separate processes that take into account local employment laws”. 

‘Under UK law we will be going through a collective consultation process.’ 

A man leaving the Meta offices in King’s Cross, London, declined to speak to the press outside.

On being approached by a reporter, he said: ‘No, sorry, I’ll lose my job.’

Zuckerberg was said to have appeared gloomy on the call and also said he was accountable for missteps made by Meta. 

It is the first time in Meta’s 18-year history that they will be making major layoffs, which follow redundancies at other major tech companies including Twitter and Microsoft Corp. 

The Facebook founder was reportedly downcast during the announcement and also accepted responsibility for some of the company’s missteps, saying his optimism led to overstaffing

Meta’s share price has tumbled 71.5 percent since the beginning of the year and the company has also lost billions through its ‘Metaverse’ project, which includes virtual worlds for users

He said: ‘Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. 

‘I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.’

He also said the company was overstaffed because he was overly optimistic about the its growth. 

Zuckerberg stressed the company would shift resources to ‘high priority growth areas’ such as its AI discovery engine, ads and business platforms, as well as its metaverse project.

The pandemic boom that boosted tech companies and their valuations has turned into a bust this year in the face of decades-high inflation and rapidly rising interest rates.

Employees will get cost of healthcare for six months and those impacted will receive their November 15 vesting, according to the company.

Meta said it also plans to cut discretionary spending and extend its hiring freeze through the first quarter.

The company’s shares, which have lost more than two-thirds of their value, were up about 3 per cent in pre market trading.

Zuckerberg said in October that he expected to end 2023 ‘roughly the same size’, signaling that some jobs could be recouped following the layoffs.

It is thought that Meta could launch another hiring drive next year which focuses on its Reality Labs arm, the department which takes the lead on the Metaverse.

The company’s 2021 rebrand was motivated in part because of founder Mark Zuckerberg’s desire to move the company beyond social media

Meta’s share price has continued to plummet with a 73 percent fall since the start of 2022

Meta recently forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly more costs next year wiping about $67 billion from stock market value, adding to the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.

The disappointing outlook comes as Meta is contending with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse and the ever-present threat of regulation.

Meta has placed a big bet on its Metaverse being the next big frontier of the technology industry, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg funneling more than $36 billion into the project that many consider – so far at least – to be failing.

The CEO has subsequently seen more than $30 billion of those funds evaporate in a matter of months, while his net worth – which is largely tied up to his company’s valuation – was reported to have lost $88 billion.

According to documents seen by the WSJ, the company planned to hit 500,000 users of its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds, by the end of 2022.

The number at the time of writing is less than 200,000, still well below a revised goal of 280,000 by the end of 2022. 

The documents also revealed that the majority of those 200,000 users, don’t come back after entering the system once with many complaining most of the areas are bereft of other users.

Meanwhile, Meta’s Reality Labs business unit, which oversees its VR and AR activities, has already lost $9.4 billion so far in 2022, according to CNBC.

Those losses, Meta has said, will ‘grow significantly year-over-year’. ‘Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run,’ Meta said last month.

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