Tech behemoth and owners of Facebook Meta has announced its plan to slash hiring in 2022, citing reasons from bracing economic downturn to weeding out non-performers who can't achieve the company's aggressive goals.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his employees that the company has cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year.  He also warned them about economic recession, calling it “this might be one of the worst downturns that we have seen in recent history, as reported by Reuters.

He also added that Meta has reduced its target for hiring engineers in 2022 from the initial plan of 10,000 engineers to around 6,000-7,000.

In addition to reduced hiring, various media sources have also reported that the company would be leaving few positions unfilled so as to “turn up the heat” on performance management and single out employees who won't perform in the manner expected.

Chief Product Officer Chris Cox also mentioned in the memo that the company must "prioritize more ruthlessly" and "operate leaner, meaner, better executing teams.” The memo has appeared on the company's internal discussion forum. 

This development comes at a time when tech companies across the board have scaled back their ambitions in anticipation of a possible U.S. recession. World’s biggest social media company is bracing for a leaner second half of the year after losing about half of its market value this year, reporting declining active users on its flagship Facebook App.