Meta(Facebook) has been downsizing. Around 21,000 people have lost their jobs since last November. Yes, 21,000. How many people work at Meta? In 2021, prior to the layoffs, Meta had 86,000 employees.
86,000 is a lot of people.
Here are some other examples of things that 86,000 is equal to:
- The population of San Francisco, California
- The number of people who live in the city of London
- The number of people who work in the healthcare industry in the United States
And now 21,000 people, which is five times the population of the town nearest to me, will have to find new jobs.
In addition to Meta, the following companies have announced layoffs:
- Amazon: Amazon announced in April that it would be laying off 18,000 employees.
- Microsoft: Microsoft announced in July that it would be laying off 1,800 employees.
- Twitter: Twitter announced in May that it would be laying off 30% of its workforce.
- Tesla: Tesla announced in June that it would be laying off 10% of its workforce.
- Coinbase: Coinbase announced in June that it would be laying off 18% of its workforce.
I have two questions. Why did Meta need so many people, and why do they no longer need them?
Blue Skies and Green Pastures 
That’s a lot of people 😊
There were a ton of fake jobs out there. And these layoffs are a cash grab by shareholders. Companies decided that Inflation + an end to free money = we need another way to increase profits. That cover story about “overhiring” during the pandemic was baloney! If they overhired, why didn’t they fire the newest employees first?
Because they’ve outsourced themselves in many instances…and way too many platforms exist now. However, banks and finance are probably going to stop outsourcing tech, so expect many of those laid off to find homes their. This also,eans that people will be shifting where they live and Silicon Valley and Seattle real estate may tumble
It’s scary. I think things will get worse as chat GPT and AI take over.
I didn’t realize that meta had doubled their workforce in the past few years. They were over staffed like other tech companies. But I agree that things are going to be changing .
I didn’t know that either. Also, Elon found out he could run Twitter with way fewer employees.
Like so many companies, they thought the current situation would go on forever. So they hired people to meet what they thought would only be increasing demand for their services.
It makes you wonder how people can become so successful and wealthy yet be so short-sighted (dumb).
The phenomenon they are experiencing is called the business cycle. I guess they don’t teach that at Wharton.
There are all kinds of companies out there that will be happy to hire these people.
A 200 person company couldn’t compete with Google to attract these workers six months ago. And many of these people will go out and create something new.
These big companies were also doing the human equivalent of a land grab. There is only so much top talent to go around, so you need to grab ahold of these folks when you can.
I would anticipate new companies and many start ups growing rapidly with the addition of these talented former Silicon Valley techies.
It’s all good. Nothing to worry about.
Didn’t they also get Covid funds ?
I’m not sure that has much to do with a change in the business environment.
If they took Covid-19 funds it probably had more to do with money than saving jobs.
I was thinking maybe they used it to hire more people. But I think Zuckerberg really thought the Metaverse would be making money by now . It’s a flop.