The Big Tech carnage continued as Meta laid off 13% of its workforce (~11,000 workers), in the largest staff reduction in the tech industry this year.
What happened: Staff across the business were touched by the layoffs, but customer support and recruiting teams (which have been especially hard hit) were impacted most.
Catch up: As revenues shot up during the pandemic–a trend that did not continue once people started to spend less time online–Meta hit the job boards for a hiring spree.
Why it matters: The Big Tech bloodletting might be less of an industry-wide retrenchment and more of a reshuffling that could serve as a talent surge for smaller companies.
- It’s hard for small companies to compete with the salaries and perks of Big Tech, but those less affected by the headwinds hitting big players are in a great position now.
Competition from TikTok, an advertising slowdown, and billions sunk into Mark Zuckerberg's dream of the metaverse also contributed to back-to-back quarterly revenue declines.
- “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” Zuckerberg told employees during the layoff announcement, “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
Zoom out: These factors are not exclusive to Meta. Big Tech has been shedding workers like a Christmas tree in February as companies realize their payrolls are too bloated.