Google is laying off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce, becoming the latest tech company to cut staff as the industry’s economic boom during the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end.
It is the company’s largest-ever round of layoffs, and it joins tens of thousands of other job losses announced recently by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta, and other tech companies as they tighten their belts in the face of a bleak industry outlook. Just this month, major companies in the sector announced at least 48,000 job cuts.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., stated in a blog post that the company has decided to reduce its workforce by approximately 12,000 positions.
“We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices. This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” Mr Pichai said.
Pichai added that: “We’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.”
The investigation began last year, following Google’s massive calendar Q3 revenue slowdown, up only 6% to $69.1 billion, and a 9% drop in operating profit to $17.135 billion. Google stated at the time that it was reviewing all ongoing projects.
According to the company, the new decision will affect 6% of its global workforce.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.