Google to lay off 12,000 workers

Tech giant Google has announced it is is reducing its workforce by approximately 12,000. According to Sundai Pichai in an email to staff, “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.”

“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.” he added.

This is the company’s largest ever, amounting to about 6 percent of the company’s global work force.

“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,” adds Sundai Pichai.

To support the affected employees in the US, the company intends to support them by helping in the following ways:

• We’ll pay employees during the full notification period (minimum 60 days).
• We’ll also offer a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google, and accelerate at least 16 weeks of GSU vesting.
• We’ll pay 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time.
• We’ll be offering 6 months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support for those affected.
• Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices.

In other countries, this layoff process will take longer due to local laws and practices and the support initiatives would be revealed in due course.

Other layoffs that have happened in recent months include:

• Microsoft lays off 10,000 employees;
• Amazon to cut 18,000 jobs
• Salesforce lays off 7000 workers

Only Apple has not laid off or indicated that they would layoff workers. In our article, we outline why Apple is the last man landing.