There seems to be no slowing down in layoffs going on in the tech industry, as Google’s parent company Alphabet trims its workforce by 6%.
This recent layoff by the tech company will see about 12,000 jobs being eliminated from the company, which will affect various sections such as the recruiting and corporate functions, as well as some engineering and product teams.
The company has already sent a separate email to employees in the U.S. who are affected while noting that in other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and protection.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 14 (June 3 – Sept 2, 2024) begins registrations; get massive discounts with early registration here.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
In an open letter published by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, he wrote, “I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here. We have 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.
“The roles we are eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels, and regions.
“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.”
Alphabet Stock stock has fallen more than 30 percent over the previous year. In October, the company reported a 27 percent drop in third-quarter net profit on an annual basis.
Also, its net profit dropped to about $13.9 billion in the three months through to the end of September, compared with the same period in 2021.
Alphabet’s operating income dropped 19 percent on an annual basis in the third quarter to about $17bn. Its earnings for each share dropped 24 percent yearly to $1.06, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.25.
Google services business which includes advertisements, Android, Chrome, hardware, Maps, Search, Google Play, and YouTube accounted for nearly 90 percent of the company’s total sales.
After it announced plans to lay off about 6% of its workforce, the share price jumped by about 2 percent during premarket trading to $94.67 on Friday.
Alphabet joins the likes of other big tech companies that have laid off part of their workforce. Earlier this week, tech giant Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts, affecting nearly 5% of its workforce, which is followed by Amazon’s move to cut 18,000 jobs or 1.2% of its global headcount.
Also, Facebook’s parent company Meta, in November last year, announced a plan to lay off 11,000 members, which will impact about 13% of its workforce.
Meanwhile, in all of these layoffs going on in tech companies, Apple has been revealed as the only tech company that has not announced any layoffs. Reports reveal that the tech giant has not appreciably increased its rate of hiring over the last two years.
While a review of SEC filings shows how rapidly the other biggest tech companies grew during the pandemic.