Facebook won’t be adding a lot of members to its workforce this year. The company’s financials aren’t looking as strong as they need to be. It is the primary reason behind the decision to reduce hiring in the mid-level and senior positions in the company.
Meta took this decision due to the decline in year-on-year revenue growth. However, other uncontrollable factors including the ongoing war in Ukraine and Apple’s ATT measures have hurt the company’s growth.
Reason for Facebook’s Hiring Slowdown in 2022
In the latest earnings report, Meta’s CFO David Wehner shed the light on the current financials of the company. According to the data, Meta’s expenses for the year would be between $87 billion and $92 billion. The new expense estimate is lesser than the previous forecast of $90 billion to $95 billion.
With the decline in expenses, it is evident that the company won’t hire with as much vigor as it did earlier. A company person revealed that recruiters stopped making efforts to hire new talent for the company. Moreover, the middle-level and senior positions will also see less occupancy this year.
Even the entry-level engineer hiring numbers are lesser than what they used to be. “We regularly re-evaluate our talent pipeline according to our business needs and in light of the expense guidance given for this earnings period, we are slowing its growth accordingly,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC.
War and its impact on Meta
The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is one of the major reasons for the decline in Facebook’s user base. Russia began obstructing access to social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram. This was done to cut off Russian citizens’ from updates on the war. It also blocked the internet access of thousands of citizens who opposed the war against Ukraine.
Userbase decline is disastrous for a social media company. If the total number of eyeballs decreases, platform engagement decreases, and advertisers pull out their ad campaigns. Along with that, Apple’s ATT measures severed a huge chunk of the advertising revenue on Facebook.
The expected loss is a whopping $13 billion due to the new privacy feature on Apple devices. Apple ATT measures give users the option to opt-in for advertisement tracking. With growing concerns over privacy, few users actually give permission to Facebook to track their data.
Facebook, once Meta’s bread and butter, has also been going through a rough patch when it comes to employees. It has seen whistleblowers and has had to pay brand tax for its ill repute among the privacy-conscious.
Moreover, cross-platform tracking is also ineffective due to the privacy feature. All these factors contribute to the Facebook hiring slowdown this year. What do you think of Meta’s new tactic to curb expenses? Will it solve the decline in revenue growth? Share your opinions in the comments section.
