Meta layoffs reveal a deeper truth: Tech exceptionalism is dead

DURING the tech sector’s pandemic-era boom, employee headcount became one of the reigning barometers of success. Quarter after quarter, alongside traditional metrics like revenue growth and operating margin, companies across Silicon Valley reported to analysts and investors the thousands of workers they had added to their ballooning payrolls.

A prime follower of this more-the-merrier hiring approach was Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, which for the last three years grew its employee base at a dizzying pace. Between the end of 2019 and its peak headcount in 2022, the company nearly doubled in size to some 87,000 employees.

The hiring sustained its ambitious (and in some cases seemingly ill-fated) projects like its big bet on the metaverse. But it also let the company take an aggressive stance in the talent wars as it scooped up skilled tech workers rather than watch them migrate to competitors.