Facebook to hire 1,000 in London this year, exec says

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Facebook is planning to create at least 1,000 jobs in London in 2020, a top company executive said Tuesday.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg made the announcement at a business event in the British capital.

"The U.K. is a world leader in both innovation and creativity," she said. "That's why I'm excited that we plan to hire an additional 1,000 people in London this year alone.

"London is home to Facebook's biggest engineering hub outside the U.S. and we're committed to investing here for the long term."

The new jobs will bring the total number of employees in London to more than 4,000. The social media company has three offices in the city and is building a new headquarters at King's Cross that will house 6,000 staff.

Sandberg said more than half the new hires this year will be in high-skilled technology roles such as software engineering, product, design, data science and product development. New jobs will also include developing the WhatsApp messenger mobile application.

"It's great news Facebook plans to create a thousand more jobs in London -- yet another sign of the strength of our dynamic tech sector," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.