Google’s parent Alphabet has confirmed that it will be reducing about 12,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce.
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, said in a staff memo: “The company had rapidly expanded headcount in recent years for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” he said.
Microsoft said it would lay off 10,000 workers. Amazon is also cutting employee base. Media reports say job cut would impact more than 18,000 Amazon workers.
Alphabet’s job loss affects teams across the company including recruiting and some corporate functions, as well as some engineering and products teams.
The layoffs are global and impact U.S. staff immediately.
Alphabet has already emailed affected employees, while the process will take longer in other countries due to local employment laws and practices.
Google had 186,779 employees at the end of September 2022 as compared with 150,028 at the end of September 2021. This indicates that Google has enhanced the number of its employees in the recent quarters despite Covid-19 turbulence.
Google had reported operating income of $19.781 billion at the end of September 2022 as compared with $23.973 billion at the end of September 2021 indicating that the digital company started facing the pressure from downturn in Q3.
“I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI,” Sundar Pichai said in the note to its employees.
