Google cuts about 12,000 jobs as layoffs spread across tech sector

Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to retrench after years of abundant growth and hiring.

The cuts will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, chief executive officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email on Friday, writing that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

Shares of Alphabet gained 4.3% in New York on Friday morning. The stock has fallen about 30% over the past 12 months.

With the layoffs, Google joins a host of other tech giants that have drastically scaled back operations amid a faltering global economy and soaring inflation. Meta Platforms Inc., Twitter Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have all slashed their ranks. Thanks to a resilient search business, Google has been one of the longest tech holdouts. But the company is dealing with a slowdown in digital advertising and its cloud-computing division continues to trail Amazon and Microsoft Corp.

“These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” Pichai wrote in the email.

He said the company has a “substantial opportunity in front of us” with artificial intelligence, a key investment area where Google is facing a surge in recent competition.

The industry-wide job cuts seem dramatic but they pale in comparison to the frenzied hiring that took place for most of the pandemic. In many cases, the layoffs will rewind the clock only about a year. Companies like Meta doubled in size during the pandemic, and Salesforce had added more than 30,000 people. Tech companies were competing with each other for talent.

REUTERS Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai.