California: Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the American tech giant is cutting approximately 12,000 jobs, which is around 6 per cent of its global workforce.
“I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. 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,” Pichai said in an open letter.
This is the latest technology firm to initiate large-scale layoffs as inflation rises and global markets face a downturn.
Google’s CEO said the company had undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that their people and roles are aligned with their highest priorities as a company. “The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review,” he added.
Pichai said Google will support employees as they look for their next opportunity.
“As an almost 25-year-old company, we’re bound to go through difficult economic cycles. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” he added.
According to US online newspaper TechCrunch, the news means that four out of the five so-called “big tech” firms have now announced significant redundancies in the past few months.
In Google’s earnings report last October it announced revenue of USD 69 billion and profit of USD 13.9 billion; marking growing revenue but shrinking profits, American technology news website The Verge reported.
Last year, Pichai hinted that the company would be slowing down on hiring, the report added. He had said Googlers would have to work with “greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days.”