Google said on Friday it will lay off 12,000 people from its workforce, adding to the various major US tech firms cutting jobs amid fears of a looming recession.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, said in an email sent to company employees on Friday that the corporate would begin layoffs within the US immediately. In other countries, the method “will take longer on account of local laws and practices,” he said.
The video search and sharing giant will offer US employees 16 weeks of severance pay plus two weeks for every additional 12 months they work at Google, Pichai added.
Tech firms are currently facing a wide range of challenges, including rising rates of interest and inflation over the past 12 months, which have reduced tech shares and compelled advertisers to reduce on online ad spend.
Particularly, rate of interest hikes by the US Federal Reserve led to a quenching of appetite for US tech stocks. The awful macroeconomic climate has in turn put pressure on these firms to make deep cuts to their workforce.
On Wednesday, Amazon began a recent wave of job cuts that affected greater than 18,000 people. On the identical day, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees.
Twitter, led by Elon Musk, has also made layoffs, cutting greater than half of the corporate’s workforce since taking on as CEO late last 12 months.
The Google Friday layoff got here after CNBC reported on Wednesday that the corporate was deferring a few of its employees’ annual bonus checks to March or April as an alternative of January.
Read the complete memo Pichai sent to staff on Friday:
googlers,
I even have a difficult message to deliver. We’ve got decided to cut back our workforce by roughly 12,000 positions. We’ve got already sent a separate email to affected US employees. In other countries, the method will take longer on account of local laws and practices.
This will mean saying goodbye to a few of the incredibly talented people we have worked hard to rent and loved working with. I’m very sorry because of this. The undeniable fact that these changes will affect the lives of Google employees may be very vital to me, and I take full responsibility for the choices that brought us here.
Over the past two years, we’ve witnessed periods of dramatic growth. To fulfill and drive this growth, we hired employees in a distinct economic reality than the one we face today.
I’m convinced of the massive opportunity that lies ahead due to the strength of our mission, the worth of our services and products, and our early investments in artificial intelligence. To totally grasp this, we will should make some difficult selections. That is why we conducted a rigorous review of all product areas and functions to make sure that our people and roles align with our highest priorities as an organization. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the final result of this review. They cross the alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.
To the Googlers who’re leaving us: thanks for working so hard to assist people and businesses all over the world. Your contribution has been invaluable and we’re grateful for it.
While this transition will not be easy, we will support employees as they seek their next opportunity.
In United States:
- We pay employees throughout the notice period (minimum 60 days).
- We will also offer a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional 12 months at Google, and speed up GSU eligibility for at the very least 16 weeks.
- We will pay bonuses for 2022 and the remaining leave.
- We will offer 6 months of health care, job placement services and immigration support for those affected.
- Outside the US, we will support employees in accordance with local practices.
As a virtually 25-year-old company, we’re doomed to difficult economic cycles. These are vital moments to sharpen our focus, reorganize our cost base, and direct our talent and capital towards our highest priorities.
Restrictions in some areas allow us to put large bets on others. A few years ago, transforming your enterprise into AI led to groundbreaking advances for our firms and the industry as an entire.
Due to these early investments, Google’s products are higher than ever. We’re also gearing as much as bring brand recent experiences to users, developers, and businesses. We’ve got a big opportunity ahead of us due to artificial intelligence in our products and we’re able to approach it boldly and responsibly.
All of this work is a continuation of the “healthy disregard for the inconceivable” that has been a staple of our culture since its inception. As I go searching Google today, I see the identical spirit and energy driving our efforts. Due to this fact, I remain optimistic about our ability to meet our mission, even in probably the most difficult days. It actually belongs to them today.
I’m sure you will have a whole lot of questions on how we will move forward. We’ll be organizing the town hall on Monday. Check your calendar for details. Until then, maintain yourselves as you receive this difficult news. As a part of this, if you happen to’re just starting your working day, you possibly can work from home today.
– sundar