Google parent Alphabet to cut 12,000 jobs in digital slowdown

GOOGLE owner Alphabet is to cut 12,000 jobs in the latest series of mass layoffs by tech companies amid a digital slowdown.

Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive, told staff in an email that he took “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here”, admitting the company had overhired during the past two years “for a different economic reality than the one we face today”.

The job cuts will impact around 6pc of staff at the online search company, which has become the latest tech giant to resort to mass layoffs amid an economic slowdown and a sharp decline in tech stocks. A Google spokesman said UK roles would be impacted, although declined to comment on how many. Google employs around 5,700 people in Britain, meaning hundreds of roles could be at risk in the cuts.

The layoffs are the biggest in Google’s history, but only represent a fraction of the staff it has added since 2020. Alphabet’s overall headcount grew to more than 185,000, as of September, up 57pc on the start of 2020.

During the pandemic, Google, like its rivals, hired rapidly, betting on a permanent transformation to digital communication and working from home.

However, as the world reopened, demand for digital goods has slipped. Google’s core search engine advertising business has also been hit by the economic slowdown as companies pare back their marketing spending.

So far this year, Amazon and Microsoft have both announced deep job cuts. The online retailer began cutting 18,000 staff this week, while Microsoft announced it would trim 10,000 roles.

Last year, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also confirmed job reductions of 13pc, meaning 11,000 people would lose work.

Twitter, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has more than halved its workforce, resulting in more than 3,500 people being sacked.

Investors have called on tech companies to moderate their spending after years of investment. In November, Sir Christopher Hohn, the billionaire behind the Children’s Investment Fund, called on Mr Pichai to take “aggressive action” on employee costs.

Sir Christopher said: “The company has too many employees and the cost per employee is too high.”

Mr Pichai wrote to staff: “These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.”

He said the cuts would impact all its regions and product areas. The company had already begun informing staff at some of its subsidiaries they were at risk, including its life sciences division and robotics lab.

Google’s shares fell by more than a third last year as investors lost confidence that tech companies would continue to grow quickly as the pandemic subsided.

The company is still worth more than $1.25 trillion (£1 trillion).