Meta CEO Zuckerberg has announced that he will drastically cut new engineers this year to prepare for a recession.
Facebook's parent company, Metaplatform, will cut engineer hires by at least 30% this year compared to originally planned.
Reuters and Bloomberg reported that CEO Zuckerberg said this in a question-and-answer session with employees on the 30th of last month.
Zuckerberg also warned employees to prepare for a deep recession.
"I would say it could be one of the worst recessions we've seen in recent history," he said.
Meta announced a policy to freeze or reduce new hires last month, but this is the first time that a specific scale has been revealed.
In addition to reducing new hires, Meta also decided to strengthen performance management in order to screen out employees who do not meet aggressive performance targets, leaving some vacancies created by natural layoffs unfilled.
"By raising your expectations, setting more aggressive goals, and increasing the pressure a bit, some of you can decide that this position isn't for you, and that choice is good for me," Zuckerberg said.
Reuters also cited an internal memo from Meta, citing macroeconomic pressures and the blow to the advertising business from Apple's privacy-enhancing measures as reasons for the move.
(Photo = Getty Images Korea)