Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta to cut global workforce

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has confirmed it plans to cut more than 11,000 jobs globally as part of a major restructuring of the tech giant.

The cuts will reduce the size of the company’s workforce by about 13%, with Meta’s European headquarters in Dublin home to 3,000 employees based in Ireland.

The global announcement will impact full-time Meta employees in Ireland. It will not affect contract workers employed by third-parties.

It is understood any redundancies in Ireland will be carried out within the country’s statutory framework, with affected employees entering a consultation period.

A view of Facebook parent company Meta's headquarters in Dublin as company layoffs are expected to be announced today. Picture date: Wednesday November 9, 2022.

Meta has informed the relevant government departments and agencies of its plans, including the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the IDA (Industrial Development Agency).

It is understood the announcement will not affect the Dublin hub’s status as Meta’s European headquarters and the company intends to proceed with longer-term investment plans in the country.

Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the “macroeconmic downturn, increased competition and ads signal loss” had caused a drop in Meta’s revenue that has led to substantial staff cuts.

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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 Mr 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”.

Meta has suffered significant outages of late, with Whatsapp and Instagram going down in the last month.