Meta, Facebook’s parent company, announced today that it would lay off approximately 11,000 employees in an effort to reduce expenses following disappointing profitability and revenue declines. The mass layoffs follow cuts at other prominent technology companies, including Elon Musk’s Twitter and Microsoft.

“Today, I’m going to discuss some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever implemented at Meta.” In a blog post today, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stated, “I’ve chosen to trim our team size by around 13% and let go of over 11,000 of our great employees.”

We are also undertaking a number of additional initiatives to become a leaner and more efficient organization, such as reducing discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1, according to Zuckerberg.

Mark Zuckerberg apologized to Meta employees for his actions and accepted responsibility. I’d like to take responsibility for these decisions and how we arrived here. He stated, “I understand how difficult this is for everyone, and my heartfelt condolences go out to everyone.”

Employees would receive 16 weeks of base pay plus two weeks for every year of service as severance pay. Employees will receive healthcare coverage for six months, according to the corporation.

The cuts, which are part of the first significant budget reduction since Facebook’s inception in 2004, reflect a sharp slowdown in digital advertising revenue, an economy on the verge of recession, and Mark Zuckerberg’s heavy investment in a speculative virtual-reality push known as the metaverse.

Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of the company becoming more capital efficient, stating that resources would be directed toward “high priority growth areas” such as its AI discovery engine, advertisements and commercial platforms, and metaverse project.