The most recent figures suggest that the tech giant — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — has more than 87,000 employees.
Listen to the CoinMarketRecap podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts
Days after a brutal round of redundancies at Twitter, Meta is reportedly planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week.
According to The Wall Street Journal, thousands of Meta's employees will be affected by the cuts — and an announcement is expected as early as Wednesday.
The most recent figures suggest that the tech giant — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — has more than 87,000 employees.
All of this comes as Meta grapples with a shocking fall in its share price, with stock plunging by 73.18% in the year to date.
Investors have struggled to warm to Mark Zuckerberg's vision of building a metaverse, which has already led to billions of dollars in losses.
To make matters worse, the embattled CEO has warned that this aggressive investment in virtual worlds may only pay dividends by the end of the decade.
It's unclear exactly where the ax will fall at Meta — and whether developers at Reality Labs, the division responsible for driving the metaverse, will end up being affected.
Zuckerberg has faced calls from prominent shareholders to slash budgets at Reality Labs to free up cashflow, but the entrepreneur has defended his strategy aggressively.
All of this follows a brutal few months for the tech sector — and in terms of the number of jobs lost, the cutbacks at Meta could end up being the biggest.
While Twitter reportedly slashed 50% of its workforce last week under orders from new owner Elon Musk, the microblogging site only had 7,500 employees to begin with.
Meta declined to comment on the report — pointing to a statement where Zuckerberg said the company would "focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas."
