Tech giant Meta (formerly Facebook) has drastically reduced its recruitment staff worldwide as part of its streamlining process and the two large rounds of layoffs imposed over the past year. The company is preoccupied with firing rather than hiring.

Sources familiar with the matter have told "Globes" that while 90 people were employed in Israel in various recruitment roles last year, the number of recruiters has currently dwindled to between three and five. Meta Israel declined to comment on this.

Worldwide Meta employed 7,000 recruitment staff last year, which according to internal information received by "Globes" has shrunk to just 600 recruitment employees this year.

Meta Israeli recently informed employees that it intends to leave its offices in the Azrieli Sharona Tower in Tel Aviv in 2025. The company will move to the nearby Landmark Towers, where due to cutbacks Meta Israel's headquarters will occupy a smaller part of the building than planned. Instead of moving to all 20 floors that the company rented from Melisron and AFI Properties, it will occupy only 13 floors, and will sublet the rest.

Meta employs three types of recruiters. The first type sets appointments for interviews and coordinates between the company and candidates, the second manages recruitment of work force operations, and the third locates candidates from the Internet in general and LinkedIn in particular. Sources say that in Israel just one person has been left in each of the three fields. In Israel, the largest team was in locating candidates, followed by coordinators.

Former Meta employees say that after the first wave of layoffs in November, they were told that there were going to be no more layoffs. But by March more rumors started to surface, and then new employees were informed that their employment had been terminated. Once a year Meta conducts a performance evaluation, where employees can get a performance bonus and even a salary increase. These layoffs were reportedly relatively surprising, the former employees say, because among employees laid off in the second round were those who had just received a salary hike.

While the recruitment teams mainly affected have been in the Tel Aviv Sarona offices, responsible for development and product, recruitment staff have also been hit in Meta's Rothschild Boulevard office, which is responsible for the company's business and sales in Israel. According to sources familiar with the matter, the Rothschild office has no active recruiters today.