Although many parts of the US and global economies are seeing major challenges right now, Facebook is continuing to hire at a fast pace. What do those tell us about where Facebook is going in 2009?

According to Facebook’s current jobs listings, the company is currently hiring for dozens of positions across various departments. In particular, Facebook is hiring large numbers of staff in both sales and customer support – good indicators of where Facebook is seeing current and future growth. Facebook currently has around 800 people on staff.

Sales Team Growing Internationally

On the sales side, Facebook lists 34 open positions, 28 of which are stationed outside of North America. Most of the open positions are in the company’s Paris and Dublin offices, though a few are in Sydney, Toronto, and even the US. However, the focus regions for these roles are more varied, as several positions are listed in Italian, Spanish, German, and Nordic. To get a sense of the geographic hot spots for these new hires, here’s the full list of Facebook’s open sales jobs:

• Account Executive (Paris)
• Account Executive (Sydney)
• Account Executive (Toronto)
• Account Executive, Pan Euro (London)
• Account Executive, Southern Europe – Italian (Paris)
• Account Executive, Southern Europe – Spanish (Paris)
• Account Executive, Southern Europe (Paris)
• Account Manager (London)
• Account Manager (Toronto)
• Account Manager, Southern Europe – Italian (Paris)
• Account Manager, Southern Europe – Spanish (Paris)
• Account Manager, Southern Europe (Paris)
• Account Planner (Atlanta)
• Account Planner (Paris)
• Account Planner (Sydney)
• Account Planner (Toronto)
• Account Planner, Southern Europe (Paris)
• Associate Account Manager (Paris)
• Associate Account Manager (Sydney)
• Head of Sales (Toronto)
• Inside Sales Account Associate
• Inside Sales Associate – French (Dublin)
• Inside Sales Associate – German (Dublin)
• Inside Sales Associate – Italian (Dublin)
• Inside Sales Associate – Nordic (Dublin)
• Inside Sales Associate – Spanish (Dublin)
• Inside Sales Manager (Dublin)
• Inside Sales Representative
• Manager, Market Development
• Sales Associate (London)
• Sales Associate, Southern Europe – Italian (Paris)
• Sales Associate, Southern Europe – Spanish (Paris)
• Sales Director (New York)
• Sales Engineer

Support Team Growth

On the support side, there are similar patterns: 16 out of 21 positions listed are either outside of North America or not in English. In particular, Facebook needs support staff that speak Turkish, Arabic, and Dutch in addition to the usual Spanish, French, German, Italian, and English:

• Analyst, Media Delivery
• Analyst, Media Delivery – French (Dublin)
• Analyst, Media Delivery – German (Dublin)
• Analyst, Media Delivery – Italian (Dublin)
• Analyst, Media Delivery – Spanish (Dublin)
• Analyst, Online Sales Operations
• Analyst, Online Sales Operations – German (Dublin)
• Analyst, Online Sales Operations – Italian (Dublin)
• Analyst, Online Sales Operations – Spanish (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – Arabic (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – Dutch (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – French (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – German (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – Italian (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – Spanish
• Analyst, User Operations – Spanish (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations – Turkish (Dublin)
• Fraud Analyst
• Fraud Investigator
• Media Delivery Analyst (New York)
• Media Delivery Specialist – Trafficker (London)

And anecdotally, Facebook is hiring for these positions pretty agressively in some cases. As Nick Carlson recently noted, Facebook recruiters were “reaching out to” a number of ex-Googlers last week letting them know that “Facebook is still growing.” Many of these sales and support roles were noted as “high priority roles” by Facebook staff.