Google Claims lays off 12,000 employees and Delays Bonuses 

Google announced on Friday that it will be eliminating 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its employees, as the technology industry struggles with layoffs and businesses place a greater emphasis on artificial intelligence.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, the parent company of Google, informed staff Friday at the Silicon Valley giant about the cuts in an email that was also posted on the company’s news blog.

It's one of the largest rounds of layoffs the company has ever experienced, and it joins the tens of thousands of other job losses recently announced by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent company Meta, and other tech companies as they tighten their belts in the face of a gloomier outlook for the sector. At least 48,000 job losses have been announced by significant corporations in the industry only this month.

“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” Pichai wrote. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

He said the layoffs reflect a “rigorous review” carried out by Google of its operations.

Regulatory records show how Google's staff increased throughout the epidemic, growing from 119,000 at the end of 2019 to roughly 187,000 by late last year.

Microsoft has announced the elimination of 10,000 jobs, or approximately 5% of its workforce. Amazon announced this month that it would be eliminating 18,000 jobs, a small portion of its 1.5 million-person workforce, while commercial software provider Salesforce would be eliminating 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its staff. Facebook parent Meta stated last October that it will cut 11,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce. Elon Musk cut back on employment at Twitter after buying the social media company last fall.

Smaller players are also being impacted by the job layoffs. Sophos, a cybersecurity company based in the UK, let go of 450 workers, or 10% of its whole workforce. In its second round of layoffs in less than a year, cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase reduced 20% of its workforce, or around 950 employees, from the total.

Despite indications that the economy is slowing down, employment in the United States has remained strong, and another 223,000 jobs were created in December. However, the tech industry expanded incredibly quickly over the past few years due to rising demand brought on by people starting to work remotely.

Companies have received criticism for expanding too quickly, but despite the most recent wave of job losses, these same businesses are still significantly bigger than they were before the pandemic-related economic boom started.

Employees who are laid off in the US will receive 16 weeks of severance compensation in addition to an additional two weeks of salary for each year of employment. Additionally, they will be compensated for the whole 60-day notice period, receive payment for their vacation time, and earn any incentives due in 2022. Additionally, the corporation will provide anyone affected with 6 months of medical coverage, assistance with finding a job, and immigration support.

How many people work for Google?

A regulatory statement from Alphabet in September 2022 stated that the company employed approximately 187,000 individuals, up from about 150,000 at the end of 2021 and 119,000 in 2019.

More than 6% of the workforce would be affected by the 12,000 job losses announced on Friday.

The announcement implies that four out of the five so-called "major tech" corporations have now announced large redundancies in the recent months, according to US online daily TechCrunch.

According to the American technology news website The Verge, Google recorded sales of USD 69 billion and profit of USD 13.9 billion in its earnings report from last October, indicating rising revenue but declining profits.

According to the story, Pichai gave a signal that the business might slow down hiring last year. Google employees would need to work with "more urgency, better focus, and more hunger than we've exhibited on brighter days," he had stated.

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