San Francisco, Nov 9 (TIWN) In one of the worst lay-offs ever in the tech industry, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday sacked more than 11,000 employees -- about 13 per cent of the global workforce - and extended hiring freeze through Q1 2023.

As a severance measure, the company will pay 16 weeks of base pay, along with two additional weeks for every year of service, "with no cap". The Facebook and Instagram parent company reported over 87,000 employees as of September. In a statement, Zuckerberg said the company is going to take a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending its hiring freeze through Q1.

"Today I'm sharing some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history. I've decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go," said Zuckerberg. "I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted," he added.