Facebook announced today that it will create 10,000 new jobs in the European Union (EU) over the next five years and put the region at the center of its plans to help build the metaverse.

Facebook has an ambitious project and wants to boost the labor market in Europe. With that it intends to help build the next computing platform. "Together with other people and entities it is developing what is called the metaverse. The project aims to create virtual spaces for people who are not physically together to meet, through the use of technologies.

At the heart of the metaverse, explains the social network, "is the idea that by creating a greater sense of 'virtual presence,' 'online' interaction can become much closer to the experience of personal interaction."

Facebook further explains that "the metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social and economic opportunities." The social network believes that Europeans will shape the metaverse from the start.

"No one company will own and operate the metaverse," he adds, adding that, "like the Internet, its main characteristic will be its openness and interoperability."

Bringing this to life "will require collaboration and cooperation between companies, 'developers', creators and legislators" and for the social network it will also require "continued investment in product and technology talent, as well as growth across the enterprise."

So "today we are announcing a plan to create 10,000 new high-skilled EU jobs over the next five years," says Javier Olivan, Facebook's vice president for central product services, quoted in the announcement.

According to him, the investment represents a vote of confidence in the European technology industry and in the potential of Europe's technology talent.

Facebook points out that the EU has "a number of advantages that make it a great place for tech companies to invest - a large consumer market, top universities and, most importantly, high quality talent."

It points out that European companies "are at the forefront of several fields, whether it's German biotech that helped develop the first MRNA vaccine, or the coalition of European neo-banks leading the future of finance."

For example, "Spain has record levels of investment in start-ups that solve everything from online grocery delivery to neuroelectronics, while Sweden is on track to become the world's first cashless society by 2023," he exemplifies.