Average Facebook's employee has lost estimated $844K since flotation

Washington - Facebook's outside investors aren't the only ones feeling cheated, as an average employee of the firm has lost over 844,000 dollars since the company's flotation, it has emerged.

Since Facebook sold shares to the public at 38 dollars a pop last Friday, the average employee has lost an estimated 844,000 dollars, based on yesterday's closing price of 32 dollars. Shares rose 3.2 percent yesterday, which was their first daily gain.

"It's obviously disappointing for Facebook's employees who still need to work there, engineering the site and selling ads," the New York Post quoted Sam Hamadeh, the head of research firm PrivCo, as saying.

In contrast to Facebook's troubled times, Google and Apple have seen their shares soar, rewarding employees who stuck with them.

"At Google, you count on that money every year because the stock has been relatively stable and growing. At Apple, you count on that money. At Facebook, we don't know yet," said Robert Greene, the head of GreeneSearch, a tech recruiting firm.

Recruiters have estimated that Facebook's cool-company status is in jeopardy if the stock-price erosion continued, absolving the super-sized growth that attracted workers in the first place.

Employees are currently left with no option but have resorted to a wait-and-see approach until their lockup ends and they can sell their shares. The first lockup for insiders expires after 91 days.