Meta prepares for large-scale layoffs: report

Facebook parent company Meta is reportedly planning to lay off thousands of employees as soon as Wednesday after experiencing rapid growth during the pandemic.

Meta, which had more than 87,000 employees in September, has already told workers to cancel nonessential travel starting this week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The workforce reduction would be the first large layoffs in the company's history.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, but pointed to CEO Mark Zuckerburg's statement that the company would "focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas."

He said during an earnings call late last month that "we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today."

Meta was already planning to cut expenses by at least 10% over the next several months, the Journal reported in September. 

Meta had added more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021 and added over 15,000 more during the first nine months of this year. Since the beginning of 2022, however, Meta's stock has fallen more than 70%.