Mark Zuckerberg confirms Meta will start laying off workers TOMORROW

Mark Zuckerberg will begin laying off swathes of Meta employees beginning tomorrow, according to reports.

The Facebook founder told executives in a meeting today that broad cuts will be announced, with recruiting and business teams to face losses, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Cuts at the company, which has suffered a huge loss in market value and falling revenues, are likely to amount to thousands of staff.

Staff are expected to be informed about the cuts in a company-wide email to be sent at 6am Eastern time on Wednesday. 

Zuckerberg, 38, was said to have appeared gloomy on the call and also said he was accountable for missteps made by Meta. 

He also said the company was overstaffed because he was overly optimistic about the its growth.

Lori Goler, head of human resources at Meta, said employees who are let go will be given at least four months of salary as severance, sources told the WSJ. 

Zuckerberg delivered the grim news about job cuts on a call with hundreds of Meta executives

The Facebook founder was reportedly downcast during the announcement and also accepted responsibility for some of the company's missteps, saying his optimism led to overstaffing

Meta's share price has tumbled 71.5 percent since the beginning of the year and the company has also lost billions through its 'Metaverse' project, which includes virtual worlds for users

Confirmation of the job losses follows growing speculation that Meta was poised to announce massive cuts to its headcount.

Details of Meta's plans come after Twitter's new chief, Elon Musk, brutally released half of its staff, about 3,750 employees, last week - becoming the latest tech firm to wield the axe.

The job losses at Meta are expected to be the largest of any tech firm by headcount in 2022.

Zuckerberg will want to avoid the backlash faced by Elon Musk over his brutal Twitter layoffs

About half of Twitter's employees, roughly 3,750 people, were axed after Elon Musk's takeover

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has around 87,000 employees.

An analyst predicted on Monday that cuts would amount to about 10 percent of staff - or roughly 8,700 workers. 

But Zuckerberg said in October that he expected to end 2023 'roughly the same size'. 

It is thought that Meta could launch another hiring drive next year which focuses on its Reality Labs arm, the department which takes the lead on the Metaverse. 

Meta recently forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly more costs next year wiping about $67 billion off Meta's stock market value, adding to the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.