Facebook may expand its staff by 40 to 50 per cent this year as it benefits from a surplus in engineers amid the recession, according to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

“No one else has been hiring,” Mr Zuckerberg (25) said. “It’s been a great environment for us because the economy has helped out.”

The world’s most popular social-networking website, which has 1,000 employees, will build its workforce at a slower pace than typical start-ups, he added. “The thing I want to remind people of is we’re way closer to the beginning than the end.” – (Bloomberg)