Jordan Bevan
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, said Friday it is cutting nearly 12,000 roles, or 6% of its workforce, in the latest cuts to shake up the tech industry. The layoffs are global and affect U.S. personnel immediately.
Affected employees in the US will remain on the company’s payroll for 60 days and receive at least 16 weeks of severance, in addition to other benefits such as 6 months of healthcare.
Alphabet has increased its staff by more than 50,000 workers over the previous two years by attracting great talent to construct Google, YouTube, and other businesses that reach billions of consumers throughout the years. However, the company’s ad business had slowed down in the last quarters as advertisers cut their budgets due to the economic downturn.
“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today,” said Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in an open letter.
The layoffs are part of the company’s effort to capture its core business and early investments in AI, Pichai said.
“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. To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, 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,” he said.
The layoffs news comes days after Microsoft’s announcement that it would lay off 10,000 staff. The company confirmed on Wednesday it would cut 10,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2023.
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