Meta cuts hiring plans due to deep economic downturn

Meta Platforms, Inc, formerly known as Facebook, has slowed down its hiring process as CEO Zuckerberg warns employees about a deep economic downturn, Reuters reported. 

“If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,” said Zuckerberg during a weekly company meeting which Reuters says it confirmed the audio of. While Meta was initially planning to hire around 10,000 new engineers in 2022, the company reduced the target to 6,000-7,000, Zuckerberg said. 

He also said Meta is not filling certain positions at the company to ‘turn up the heat’ and eliminate the ones who are not able to reach more aggressive targets. 

“Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” Mark Zuckerberg said. 

Chief Product Officer Chris Cox wrote in a company memo on Meta’s business collaboration tool Workplace that the company should “operate leaner, meaner, better executing teams,’’ and  “prioritize more ruthlessly“. 

 “I have to underscore that we are in serious times here and the headwinds are fierce. We need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets,” Cox said, according to Reuters. 

In the memo, Cox says that the company will primarily focus on the metaverse, its short video feature Reels which was launched globally earlier this year, the metaverse, discovery engine, artificial intelligence, monetization, and new features for WhatsApp including ‘Communities’ and Messenger including ‘Creator Channels’.  

Meta’s market value dropped almost 50% this year after reporting a quarterly downward trend in Facebook’s daily active users for the first time in a while. 

Also Read: Facebook Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022)

Last month, the company told employees that it’d pause the hiring process for various projects including Messenger Kids, Facebook Dating and Facebook Gaming.