Google LLC could lay off a significant number of employees amid a deteriorating global economy and several quarters of negative economic growth in the US
As the New York Post reported late last week on Friday, Google has suspended hiring of new employees, reportedly telling some existing employees to “form or mold” if expectations aren’t met. Those expectations include the financials from Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, in its next earnings report, due out in October.
Unnamed employees told the Post they fear there will be significant layoffs. Employees who work in sales at Google’s cloud division are said to have been told by management that there will also be an “overall review of sales productivity and productivity in general”. The same employees also describe the potential layoffs in the event of a poor earnings report, which would result in “blood on the streets”.
It was first reported that Google along with Microsoft Corp. would scale back hiring efforts in July. It was reported at the time that a hiring freeze would not affect job offers already sent out. “We will use this time to review our staffing needs and align with a new set of prioritized staffing requests for the next three months,” the company said in an internal memo. This memo may have turned out to be a forewarning of what is to come.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also said in the same memo that the search engine giant was planning changes in other areas. “In some cases, this means consolidation where investments overlap and streamlining of processes,” explained Pichai. “In other cases, that means pausing development and directing resources to higher-priority areas.”
In view of the macroeconomic environment, it is not surprising that Google has slowed down all settings or, as is now being reported, stopped them altogether. Microsoft is also in the process of eliminating “a lot of job openings” in several areas of its business, including its Azure public cloud division and its cybersecurity software group.
The move to downsizing can also be found at other leading technology companies. Also in July, it was reported that Facebook Inc. employees expect about 10% layoffs, although Facebook denies the reports.
The glory days of big tech and exponential growth that began in 2004-2005 after the dot-com bust at the turn of the century may be coming to an end thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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