Social media site Facebook is set to expand its staff by up to 50 per cent in the coming year, thanks to a surplus of engineering workers during the recession.
Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg asserted that the economic downturn has spelled good news for the social media site, as more skilled professionals are available for work. "No-one else has been hiring," he told Bloomberg.
Facebook's success - the company is expecting revenue to grow up to 70 per cent by the end of 2009 compared with last year - is in contrast with its NewsCorp-owned rival MySpace, which announced it is set to cut two-thirds of jobs among its international workforce and 30 per cent of its US-based employees earlier this summer, Reuters pointed out.
Some 900 employees currently work for Facebook, which has more than 250 million users worldwide. Staff members benefit from a variety of "perks", Bloomberg reported, including the use of a basketball court and three free meals every day.
The site is currently a popular marketing tool for a range of companies, including sportswear giant Nike and American department store chain JC Penney.
