As Silicon Valley continues its cost-cutting measures, Google has announced that it will lay off hundreds of employees responsible for hiring and recruiting new personnel.
These layoffs come after Alphabet, Google’s parent company, eliminated 12,000 jobs in January, accounting for approximately 6 percent of its total workforce. The company faced economic challenges, particularly in its main advertising division.
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, mentioned during the July earnings call that the company was actively working to reduce “expense growth and the pace of hiring.”
In a statement, Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini stated, “We continue to invest in top engineering and technical talent while also meaningfully slowing the pace of our overall hiring.” This reduction in hiring pace has led to a decrease in the workload for recruiters. Mencini further explained, “To ensure we operate efficiently, we’ve made the hard decision to reduce the size of our recruiting team.”
While several hundred employees worldwide will be affected by these job cuts, Google clarified that most of the team will continue their work, particularly in recruiting top engineering talent. The exact number of departmental layoffs was not disclosed.
Google emphasized that these hiring reductions do not represent a broader round of layoffs and assured affected employees that they will receive severance packages and other benefits.
Recruiters from Google’s cloud, user experience, software engineering, and other teams have posted on LinkedIn, indicating that they have been impacted by the layoffs.
One affected Google recruiter expressed, “My heart is heavy for everyone that was impacted alongside me, and I know better days are ahead for all of us even though today doesn’t feel like it.”
While Alphabet initially increased its workforce by over 50,000 employees in 2021 due to rising demand for its services during the pandemic, its main digital advertising business faced a slowdown last year as advertisers reduced spending due to economic uncertainties.
In response to these challenges, the company has focused on cost-cutting measures this year. In July, Google reported a year-over-year revenue increase of approximately 15 percent for the quarter ending in June, driven by growth in its Search and YouTube advertising businesses.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission report, Alphabet had 190,234 employees at the end of 2022. However, its headcount decreased to 181,798 by the end of June, as per the most recent filing.
Throughout this year, various other IT companies, including Meta, Microsoft, and T-Mobile, have also implemented significant layoffs to reduce expenses amid economic difficulties.
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