Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta to cut 11,000 jobs

This is part of a major restructuring of the tech giant as it will reduce the company's workforce by about 13%.

Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts were “some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history”.

“We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1,” he said in a statement.

“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone and I’m especially sorry to those impacted."

He added the “macroeconmic downturn, increased competition and ads signal loss” had caused a drop in Meta’s revenue that has led to substantial staff cuts.

Meta announces job cuts (Image: PA)

In a message to employees as he confirmed around 11,000 of Meta’s 87,000-person global workforce would be cut, he said: “I got this wrong and I take responsibility for that.”

Meta’s biggest platforms – Facebook and Instagram – have come under increased pressure from sites such as TikTok while the company has also spent billions developing the metaverse – a long-term project of Zuckerberg’s.

He said departing staff would get 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, saying support would be “similar” around the world but the company would “follow up soon with separate processes that take into account local employment laws”.

He also confirmed access to internal staff systems would be removed for people leaving “given the amount of access to sensitive information”, but said email addresses would be active “throughout the day” so that “everyone can say farewell”.