Home » UK Employment news » UK and Ireland Google staff fear job losses as company announces 12,000 global cuts

UK and Ireland Google staff fear job losses as company announces 12,000 global cuts

By Nagasunder in UK Employment news, posted January 23, 2023

Google employees in the UK and Ireland are facing uncertainty after its parent firm Alphabet revealed 12,000 jobs would be cut around the world.

The Silicon Valley giant has more than 5,000 employees across both nations, but the corporation declined to comment on how the mass layoffs will affect them.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai broke the "tough news" about the job losses, which represent around six percent of the entire workforce, in an email to staff on Friday. The memo was also shared on the business news site.

He said the company had employed for "periods of rapid expansion" throughout the previous two years but that was a "different economic reality than the one we confront today"

Days before rival Microsoft announced it will lay off 10,000 employees, or about 5 percent of its workforce.

While Amazon eliminates 18,000 positions, Facebook's parent company Meta will eliminate 11,000 posts.

Teams across the company, including recruiting, various corporate operations, as well as some technical and product teams, are impacted by job losses at Alphabet.

Mr. Pichai told staff: "This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I'm deeply sorry for that.

"The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

"Over the past two years, we've seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."

He said: "I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI.

"To fully capture it, we'll need to make tough choices. So, we've undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company.

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"The roles we're eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.

"To the Googlers who are leaving us: Thank you for working so hard to help people and businesses everywhere. Your contributions have been invaluable and we are grateful for them.

"While this transition won't be easy, we're going to support employees as they look for their next opportunity."

Source: Sky News

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