Defying the recession, Facebook plans to increase its workforce by up to 50% over the coming year. At a time when many technology companies are cutting back, Facebook is taking advantage of the abundance of highly-skilled professionals looking for work. The social networking company had planned to increase its size to 1,000 employees by the end of 2008, but scaled back its ambitions due to the economic crisis. Now Facebook has reached that target and plans to go on hiring throughout 2009.