In yet another round of layoffs in the tech space, Meta Platforms (META  ) has announced that it will lay off roughly 11,000 employees in an effort to protect its bottom line and extend its runway in today's economic downturn.

This represents a staggering 13% of its more than 85,000 employee base across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This is the Company's largest round of layoffs ever, joining the likes of Twitter (TWTR  ), Salesforce (CRM  ), and Amazon (AMZN  ) who have also made large cuts.

The Company will also slow hiring in 2023 which is estimated to save $1-2 billion in total expenses, as outlined in its latest 8-K filing: "We have continued to refine our 2023 expense budget and now expect 2023 total expenses to be in the range of $94-100 billion, lowered from $96-101 billion previously. This includes the previously disclosed $2 billion in estimated charges related to consolidating our office facilities footprint. The updated range reflects our plan to add fewer employees in 2023 than we previously expected as we are significantly slowing our hiring trajectory through the beginning of 2023."

Not all teams were affected equally; "While we're making reductions in every organization across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, some teams will be affected more than others. Recruiting will be disproportionately affected since we're planning to hire fewer people next year. We're also restructuring our business teams more substantially."

Since its re-branding from "Facebook" to "Meta" in late 2021, the Mark Zuckerberg has been faced with widespread criticism over his focus on the metaverse, which many deem a lost cause as the Company has poured more than $15 billion into the project.

In a formal letter to employees posted on Meta's page Zuckerberg blamed COVID and the current macroeconomic events," Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected."

The Company added 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021 and more than 15,000 in 2022 year-to-date as the Company saw exponential growth during the pandemic lockdowns. Despite this, many are criticizing Zuckerberg for prioritizing the metaverse project over the Company's employees.

Meta's U.S.-based employees will receive 16 weeks of severance plus two additional weeks for every year of service. Meta will also pay for six months of health insurance as well as provide three months of career support via an external vendor. International employee separation packages will be based on local employment laws.

The recent tech layoffs have hit visa-holders particularly hard, especially those on H-1 visas which are granted to foreign professionals, specifically knowledge workers, who are looking to live and work in the U.S. It is typically the case that large, international organizations sponsor H-1 visas, particularly lucrative for tech and software companies looking to hire top tier international talent. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services hs a 60-day grace period which means that laid off Meta employees who hold an H-1 visa must find a new employer willing to sponsor them or change their visa status to visitor, student, or dependent spouse. This creates significant issues for the many H-1 visa holders. They must find another job not only for purposes of income but also in order to maintain legal immigration status in the U.S. And not all companies sponsor worker visas, significantly limiting employment opportunities in an already unfavorable job market.

Employees took to LinkedIn (MSFT  ) and other social media platforms to share their story and update their profile to "open to work". Other have created a "layoff list" with profiles of laid off employees looking for work, creating an opportunity for "underdog" companies to tap into top tier talent that they might have previously not had access to.