Is the Metaverse to blame for Meta's layoff of 11,000 employees?

The entrance to the Meta headquarters.
(Image credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Layoffs in the tech industry continued Wednesday, as Facebook's parent company, Meta, announced it was parting ways with more than 11,000 employees, around 13 percent of the brand's staff.

In a letter announcing the decision, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed the decision on a surge of e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the company make strategic errors in investments. "Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected," Zuckerberg said. "Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn ... [has] caused our revenue to be much lower than I'd expected."

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Justin Klawans, The Week US

 Justin Klawans has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022. He began his career covering local news before joining Newsweek as a breaking news reporter, where he wrote about politics, national and global affairs, business, crime, sports, film, television and other Hollywood news. Justin has also freelanced for outlets including Collider and United Press International.