Google's parent company, Alphabet, has announced that it will offat least 12,000 people.
Sundar Pichai, the company's CEO, announced in an email to employees that these cuts will affect teams across the company, including hiring and some corporate functions, as well as some engineering teams and product areas.
US employees affected by this situation will remain on the company's payroll for 60 days, while receiving at least 16 weeks' worth of salary as compensation. Other benefits will also be provided.
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With the pandemic driving demand for services , Alphabet has expanded its workforce significantly over the past two years and posted huge profits. But with recession fears looming and advertisers cutting spending, Alphabet's core digital advertising business has begun to stagnate in recent quarters.
“The last two years have seen periods of dramatic growth,” Pichai said in the email. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired people during a different economic reality than the one we face today.”
Pichai said the layoffs at Alphabet are part of an effort to refocus the company on its core businesses, as well as its investments in artificial intelligence. “These are important times to shift our focus, redesign our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” he said.
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Most tech companies are struggling right now due to the general economic uncertainty. Alphabet is set to report earnings for the final quarter of 2022 soon, and Wall Street analysts expect to the company's revenue grow just 1.7% compared to the same period last year. That would be a sharp slowdown from the 32% growth it reported in the same period last year. Analysts also predict that net income will fall nearly 25% year over year.
The staff at Google's parent company, Alphabet, are the latest in a wave of layoffs in the technology industry.
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will lay off 10,000 employees, while Amazon also recently announced that it will lay off 18,000 people. Salesforce is cutting 10% of its staff , and Facebook parent Meta reported 11,000 job cuts.
Last year, many more technology companies announced layoffs, hiring freezes, project suspensions, etc., to respond to the new realities.
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Pichai took responsibility for the layoffs at Alphabet, saying:
“The fact that these changes will impact the lives of employees Google.” However, he added: “I am confident in the tremendous opportunity that lies ahead.”
Laying off employees is never an easy decision, but sometimes it is necessary for a business to survive in difficult times.
Source: edition.cnn.com
