Google is set to cut hundreds of employees who were responsible for recruitment and hiring. This is part of the cost-cutting efforts currently being undertaken by Silicon Valley-based companies. Alphabet, Google's parent company, had already trimmed its workforce by approximately 6% or 12,000 jobs earlier this year due to economic uncertainty that impacted the company's advertising business.
During the July earnings call, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, announced that the company is reducing its "expense growth and pace of hiring." However, according to a statement made by Courtenay Mencini, a representative from Google, they are still actively seeking top engineering and technical talent, but at a slower pace. Consequently, recruiters have had less workload, and the company has decided to streamline its recruiting team to enhance its efficiency.
Google's recruitment department is reducing its workforce globally, but will still retain most of its staff to continue recruiting excellent engineering professionals. The exact number of employees being laid off was not disclosed by Google, but these cuts are not indicative of any larger-scale layoffs at the company. Those affected by the layoff will receive assistance through severance packages and other benefits.
Google recruiters from various teams, including cloud, user experience, and software engineering, posted on LinkedIn to announce being impacted by the layoffs.
“My
heart is heavy for everyone that was impacted alongside me, and I know better
days are ahead for all of us as much as today doesn’t feel like it,” one
affected Google recruiter wrote.
Alphabet
grew its workforce by more than 50,000 employees starting in 2021 as booming
demand for its services during the pandemic boosted profits. But last year, the
company’s core digital ad business slowed as fears of an economic downturn or a
recession caused advertisers to pull back their spending.
This
year, the company has emphasized its efforts to cut costs as it works to
stabilize its business. Google in July said its profits had grown nearly 15%
year-over-year in the quarter ended in June, as the company’s Search and
YouTube ads businesses continued to recover.
