09 Nov The Meta layoffs
Remember the economists who tried to gaslight everyone saying there would be no mass layoffs in Q4?
Yeeeahhhh . . .
Yet another reason why I say: if you wait to be officially told there’s an economic mess a’brewing, you’ve waited too late IMO.
“Meta is laying off 13% of its staff, or more than 11,000 employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees Wednesday.
‘Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,’ Zuckerberg said in the letter. ‘I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. 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.’ Shares of Meta were up about 7.7% Wednesday morning.” –https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11000-thousand-employees.html
Well at least the shares went up. 🙄
“He said Meta is making reductions in every organization but that recruiting will be disproportionately affected since the company plans to hire fewer people in 2023. The company extended its hiring freeze through the first quarter with a few exceptions, Zuckerberg said.” -CNBC
People who say, “Oh just go get another job” or “Oh go pick up a side hustle” – what will you do if that is not an option in the near future? I do not believe unemployment is currently 3.7% or that it will bump up to 5.5% next year before leveling off. Sorry, I don’t.
“How did we get here?
At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.” -CNBC, quoting Zuckerberg’s letter to staff
Hmm. *Thinks back in the old memory bank* This sounds to me like the Dot Com Boom/Bust.
“Low interest rates in 1998–99 facilitated an increase in start-up companies. Although a number of these new entrepreneurs had realistic plans and administrative ability, most of them lacked these characteristics but were able to sell their ideas to investors because of the novelty of the dot-com concept.
In 2000, the dot-com bubble burst, and many dot-com startups went out of business after burning through their venture capital and failing to become profitable.”
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble
For a brief list of other companies with current layoffs, you can visit this link from Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/corporate-america-leans-job-cuts-recession-fears-mount-2022-11-07/
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