(KRON) — Facebook’s parent company Meta Inc. laid off 13% of its staff this week, adding up to more than 11,000 employees. In a company blog post, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg explained the reasons behind the layoffs and also laid out the details of the severance package departing employees would receive.
“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase out investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”
Zuckerberg went on to say that online commerce had returned to “prior trends” and cited other factors including the “macroeconomic downturn,” “increased competition,” and “ads signal loss.”
KRON On is streaming live news now
As for the company’s severance package, Zuckerberg laid out some of the details, which include:
- 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service
- A payout for all remaining PTO
- RSU vesting through Nov. 15
- Six months of health insurance coverage for employees and their families
- Three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to job leads
- Immigration support for workers here on a visa
The Meta layoffs are just the latest in a spate of layoffs at Bay Area based tech firms. In recent weeks and months, we’ve seen similar moves by Salesforce, DocuSign and most recently, Twitter.
According to Zuckerberg’s blog post, all Meta employees will be sent an email letting them know what the layoff means for them. “Affected employees,” he wrote, “will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.”
