Facebook parent Meta to lay off more than 700 workers in Puget Sound area

SEATTLE — As layoffs at tech companies continue, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is laying off more than 700 employees in the Puget Sound region.

The Washington State Employment Security Department said Meta Platforms notified the agency that 307 employees would be laid off in Bellevue and 419 more would be laid off in Seattle.

The expected date that the layoffs will begin is Jan. 13, 2023.

Last week, in a letter to employees, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the layoffs of about 11,000 people, citing sinking revenue and other issues in the tech industry, The Associated Press reported.

Zuckerberg said a current hiring freeze would be extended through the first quarter of 2023.

The cuts come a week after Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter and laid off about half of its workforce, the AP reported. But other tech companies have also announced layoffs after they increased the number of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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