Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, said it will be cutting near about 12,000 jobs, which stands for more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to announce the wide-scale layoff after years of growth and hiring.
The cuts will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email on Friday, writing that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”
With the fresh layoff, Google now joins the batch of other tech giants that have incessantly scaled their operations back amid a faltering economy and soaring inflation. Among the companies that have slashed their ranks include, Meta Platforms Inc., Twitter Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Thanks to a resilient search business, Google has been one of the longest tech holdouts avoiding major workforce reductions. But, the company now deals with a slowdown in digital advertising and cloud computing division and seems to stand as one the crucial point in the decision.
Pichai in the email wrote, “These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” Pichai wrote in the email.
Reportedly, he is of the view, there is a “substantial opportunity” for the company ahead with AI, where Google is facing a surge in a recent competition.
In October, the company reported earnings and revenue that missed analyst expectations. Profit declined 27% to $13.9 billion compared to the prior year. At the time, Pichai said Google would curb its expenses and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said the number of new jobs would fall by more than half in the fourth quarter from the previous period.
Based on the human-resources consulting firm, Gray & Christmas Inc., the most job cuts in 2022 were in the tech sector, which stood at 97,171 up by 649% compared to the previous year.
Google has made a series of cost-cutting measures in recent months, cancelling the next generation of its Pixelbook laptop and permanently shuttering Stadia, its cloud gaming service. Earlier in January, Verily, a biotech unit of Alphabet, said it was cutting 15% of its staff.
Company’s CEO Pichai said, that they will be paying the affected employees 16 weeks of severance and six months’ worth of health benefits in the US, while employees in other parts of the globe receive packages based on the laws and practices of their region.