Mark Zuckerberg to lay off 13% of Meta's workforce

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta, Facebook's parent company, will have to cut staff and lay off 13% of its workers. This means that more than 11,000 people will lose their jobs at the technology company.

The layoffs mark the first major downsizing in the company's 18 years of operation and will become the largest workforce reduction in the technology industry this year.

The CEO of Meta, and owner of Whatsapp and Instagram, hopes that with this decision, he will be able to solve the issues of increased costs and, the weakness that the company has in the advertising market. "I want to take responsibility for these decisions and how we got here. I know this is difficult for everyone, and I'm especially sorry for those affected," Zuckerberg said in remarks picked up by Bloomberg.

The workforce reduction comes after Meta's shares plummeted 71% so far this year and will affect the entire company. However, the recruiting and business teams will be the most affected. As confirmed by Zuckerberg in his statement, Meta will also undertake other measures: it will reduce its real estate, review its infrastructure spending and extend its hiring freeze until the end of first quarter of 2023.

The announcement also comes just days after Twitter owner Elon Musk decided to lay off 50% of its workforce.