Google has recently embarked on a strategy to enhance efficiency and focus on its most critical product areas, resulting in the reduction of several hundred jobs across various departments. This move, confirmed by a Google spokesperson to CNBC, affects personnel in the company’s hardware, central engineering, and Google Assistant teams, among other sectors.
The decision to streamline its workforce is part of Google’s broader initiative to manage its significant expansion during the pandemic. In the previous year, Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, reduced its staff by 12,000, approximately 6% of its total full-time employees. Additional cutbacks were made in the recruitment and news divisions later in the year.
This restructuring aligns with Google’s strategic shift towards advancing in artificial intelligence. The tech giant has introduced new products like the Bard chatbot and the Gemini large language model, marking its effort to stay competitive in a market shared with rivals like Microsoft and Amazon.
A Google representative explained that the reorganization aims to optimize team efficiency and realign resources with the company’s most significant product priorities. This process of refinement, which began in the second half of 2023, involves role eliminations on a global scale.
In a related move, Google also reduced its investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs last year, as reported by CNBC.
The recent layoffs have drawn criticism from the Alphabet Workers Union, which voiced its disapproval on X, formerly known as Twitter. The union criticized the job cuts as unnecessary, emphasizing that the employees’ dedication to developing quality products should be acknowledged, especially given the company’s substantial quarterly earnings. The union pledged to continue advocating for job security for its members.
These recent workforce adjustments at Google were initially reported by 9to5Google and Semafor. Despite these changes, Google’s stock showed a modest increase of less than 1% on Thursday following the announcement.
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