19-1-2024 (SAN FRANCISCO) Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, has informed employees of impending layoffs at the tech giant as it shifts its focus towards new priorities, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Pichai addressed staff concerns in an email seen by AFP on Thursday, highlighting that these job cuts would not be as extensive as those experienced last year but acknowledged the challenge of witnessing colleagues and teams being affected.
“These role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions, and will not touch every team. But I know it’s very difficult to see colleagues and teams impacted,” Pichai expressed in the email.
The announcement followed the confirmation that approximately 100 employees at Google’s YouTube arm were laid off, as reported by TechCrunch. According to the New York Times, these workers have a two-month window to secure new roles within the company before their dismissals take effect.
In the face of inflation and rising interest rates, Google had laid off around 12,000 people at the same time last year, constituting about 6 per cent of its workforce. The recent job cuts also include “a few hundred” positions from Google’s global ad team, aligning with the company’s strategy to leverage AI for efficiency and creativity.
The restructuring in the “large customer” sales team aims to enhance support for small and medium-sized businesses advertising on Google’s platform, according to the company.
This move towards staff reductions echoes a broader trend in the tech industry. Amazon, another tech giant, has also undertaken staff cuts, targeting hundreds of employees in its entertainment units, including Twitch, Prime Video, and Amazon MGM Studios since the beginning of 2024.
The tech industry has witnessed a wave of unprecedented layoffs since late 2022, attributed to over-hiring during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meta, the company behind Facebook, laid off over 20,000 workers during this period, designating it the “Year of Efficiency.” Amazon reported a loss of 27,000 workers during the same timeframe.
