February 3, 2023
Google is cutting 12,000 jobs, or around 6% of its employees, making it the latest tech business to do so as the COVID-19 pandemic-related economic boom wanes.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and the head of its parent firm Alphabet, told colleagues on Friday of the layoffs in an email that was also posted on the business’ news blog.
It is the largest round of layoffs the company has ever experienced, and it joins the tens of thousands of other job cuts recently disclosed by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent company Meta, and other internet companies as they tighten their belts in the face of a gloomier future for the sector. At least 48,000 job losses have been announced by significant corporations in the industry only this month.
We’ve experienced periods of extraordinary growth over the last two years, Pichai wrote. “We hired for a different economic reality than the one we confront today in order to meet and fuel that development.”
He said that the layoffs are a result of Google’s “rigorous investigation” of its business practices.
According to Pichai, the positions being terminated “cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels, and regions.” He expressed his “deep regret” over the layoffs.
Regulatory records show how Google’s staff increased throughout the epidemic, growing from 119,000 at the end of 2019 to roughly 187,000 by late last year.
According to a statement from Victoria Scholar, an analyst with U.K.-based Interactive Investor, tech companies that “not long ago were the darlings of the stock market” have been compelled to suspend hiring and make employment cuts in anticipation of a recession.
She added, “Digital expenditure is hurting, and ad revenues are declining along with it.”
Microsoft announced the elimination of 10,000 jobs, or over 5% of its workforce. Amazon said this month that it is eliminating 18,000 positions, while that represents a small portion of its 1.5 million-person workforce, while commercial software provider Salesforce is eliminating 8,000 jobs, or 10% of the entire workforce. Facebook parent Meta stated last October that it will cut 11,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce. Elon Musk cut back on employment at Twitter after buying the social media company last fall.
Many CEOs of businesses have been criticized for expanding too quickly, but even with the most recent round of layoffs, these businesses are still significantly bigger than they were before the pandemic’s economic boom started.
Source: AP News
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