Meta layoffs also affect Italy

At the end of September, Meta announced that it would freeze most of its hiring and Zuckerberg himself warned employees that layoffs could follow. «The pressures that Meta's business is facing in 2022 are acute, significant and unrelated to the Metaverse - said Matthew Ball, an investor and Web 3 expert in an interview with the New York Times - And there's a risk that almost everything Mark has outlined about the Metaverse is right, except that the timing is further off than he imagined.» The results of these statements, the result of a loss in shares of 60% and a performance in the Metaverse far below expectations, were seen yesterday: workforce to be reduced by 11,000, or 13% of the total, and a hiring freeze that will continue into the first quarter of 2023, witnessed by hundreds of TikTok videos of outraged former employees. A cut that did not spare Italy.

Zuckerberg expressed regret in his letter to employees: «I have decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let go of more than 11,000 of our talented people. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting expenses and extending the hiring freeze until the first quarter of 2023.» 

Meta's CEO admits he miscalculated: he considered that in the post-pandemic landscape the digital dimension would continue to play a central role, so much so that he went all-in with his Metaverse idea, but he soon had to change his mind. As for Italy, although initial rumors spoke of 22 redundancies, one out of every six employees, Meta let us know through a statement that at the moment there are no definitive, official figures: «At the moment Meta cannot determine the exact number of employees made redundant in Italy. It will work closely with the unions and initiate a collective consultation in the coming months. The one provided to the unions is not the final number but represents a potential number of people affected.»