Meta May Have Spent More Than $88,000 Per Person in Layoffs

• In November 2022, Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce.
• The layoffs were the most significant job cuts in the company’s history.
• It’s possible the company spent around $88,000 a person in cutting those employees.

The numbers are in, and Meta’s mass layoffs announced in November cost the company a pretty penny.

On Wednesday, Myles Udland— now the Head of News at Yahoo Finance and a former markets correspondent for Insider — laid out part of Meta’s balance sheet in a tweet:

—Myles Udland (@MylesUdland) February 1, 2023

Udland estimated that Meta shelled out approximately $88,000 a person to cut more than 11,000 employees out of its workforce in November. 

The number comes from dividing the $975 million that the company paid in “Severance and Other Personnel” costs by 11,000, approximately the number of employees the company cut in November. The result comes out to around $88,636 a person, adding room for the “more than” 11,000.  

The calculation was subsequently confirmed by Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities. 

The cost of cutting those employees is particularly significant amid rising concerns that Meta is preparing for an additional round of layoffs this year. 

In the company’s fourth-quarter earnings release posted Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned that Meta’s management theme for 2023 was ‘Year of Efficiency.’

Meta did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for a comment.