Google’s parent company Alphabet on Friday announced it would cut about 12,000 jobs worldwide, becoming the latest American tech giant to embark on a large-scale redundancy plan.
“In the past two years, we’ve had periods of spectacular growth,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees.
“To support and drive this growth, we hired in a different economic context than what we know today,” he added, adding that the economic situation forced the company to reduce the workforce.
Alphabet employed nearly 187,000 people worldwide at the end of September 2022. The cuts correspond to slightly more than 6% of the total workforce.
They will be conducted “across all departments, functions, levels of responsibility and regions,” Mr. Pichai said.
Affected US employees have already been notified. In other countries, the process may take longer depending on local employment law.
Before Alphabet, other American tech pillars such as Microsoft, Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) and Amazon have announced massive layoffs in recent months. The industry is facing a difficult time in an environment of inflation and rising interest rates.