Hundreds of Google Recruiters to Lose Their Job as Company Expands Cost-Cutting Efforts

Urian B., Tech Times 13 September 2023, 08:09 pm

Google reportedly confirmed that it would be letting go of more staff in the recruiting and hiring department. This comes as its parent company let go of over 10,000 staff sometime earlier this year as part of its efforts to cut costs.

Google's Parent Company Alphabet has Already Let Go of 12,000 Employees in 2023

According to the story by CNN, Google's parent company Alphabet specifically let go of 12,000 employees. This was equal to just 6% of its total staff number and covered different divisions as the company felt a decline in certain parts, like its advertising business which is its core.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai gave an earnings call in July noting that the company would continue to slow its pace of hiring as well as the way its expenses grow. Courtenay Mencini, the spokesperson of Google, highlighted how they still invest in top engineering and technical talent despite the slowdown.

The spokesperson also highlighted how there was a decline when it came to hiring, resulting in a decline in workload for recruiters. Mencini then noted that for them to remain efficient, they have decided to shrink their recruiting team size.

The Company is Letting Go of Hundreds of Workers but Clarifies It Isn't Part of Larger Layoff Plans

As seen on Semafor, Mencini noted that they are still supporting the people who were affected during the period in the form of severance and outplacement services. This comes as the laid-off staff would look for new opportunities either within the company or outside.

It was noted that less than a thousand workers will be affected by the layoff with the hundreds of affected employees coming from Google's global recruiting body. While hundreds would lose their jobs, the majority of the team is expected to remain and continue hiring important roles like top engineering talent.

Despite hundreds of employees losing their jobs in the company, the exact number of employees that would be losing their jobs was not highlighted. Google clarified that its decision to let go of employees within its recruitment segment wasn't part of larger layoff plans.

Recruiter Layoffs are Coming from Different Parts of Google's Business

Brian Ong, the vice president of recruiting, said that the decision was unfortunate but that they needed to do it. They noted how the decision wasn't easy but that it was still the "right thing to do overall," according to a report by CNBC.

Employees who would be laid off would come from Google's cloud, UX, software engineering, and other teams working as recruiters. This came as some of these recruiters highlighted on LinkedIn that they had been laid off.

It was noted that Alphabet, at the end of 2022, had 190,234 employees via a filing but in June, an updated filing showed its headcount had dropped to 181,798. Google's parent company, Alphabet, isn't the only company that's laid off a huge number of employees this 2023 as Meta, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and others also let go of a large chunk of staff.