New virtual reality jobs die down at Meta, Google amid hiring freeze: Report

IANS

New Delhi, August 22

The virtual reality (VR) job postings at Meta have shockingly died down, as its Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg places a $10 billion bet on building his metaverse dream, a new report has shown.

The VR job postings have also slowed down at other Big Tech companies like Apple and Google amid the hiring freeze and layoff season owing to the global economic meltdown, according to workplace research platform Revelio Labs.

Since Meta’s rebranding in October 2021, the number of new job postings mentioning virtual reality (VR) skyrocketed in early 2022.

“However, the crypto crash and tech slowdown likely destroyed the hiring demand more recently. While Meta led the way in demand for VR talent in late 2021, it slowed its effort, as other companies rushed in to fill the void,” Revelio Labs said in a recent blog post.

In collaboration with Bloomberg, Revelio Labs took a look at the recent hiring trend in the world of metaverse.

In a surprising turn of events, Accenture has put out more VR related job postings than Meta since October 2021, it found.

“When we compare the skill share differences between Accenture and Meta, we see that the VR positions in Accenture have a much higher share in design-focused skills while those in Meta have a greater emphasis on research and product development,” the report noted.

Accenture is not looking to conduct ground breaking research, but “is perhaps hoping to leverage existing tools to help its clients adapt and operate in the metaverse”.

“Tech companies dominated in their demand for VR talent during the hype but companies in other industries were also looking to expand their services into the metaverse,” the report noted.