The ongoing wave of tech industry redundancies continues as Google has announced it’s laying off 12,000 staff, the largest in company history.
CEO Sundar Pichai announced the lay-off’s in a blog post, saying that Google had previously “hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today” and that jobs would be cut across a variety of different departments.
“This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with,” Pichai said. “I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”
“The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”
Employees affected in the U.S. have already been notified, and Google is paying them for the full notification period of 60 days, at least 16 weeks salary in severance, their 2022 bonuses and vacation time, and giving them six months of healthcare alongside access to job placement services and immigration support.
Pichai remained hopeful for the future despite the lay-offs, saying that “difficult economic cycles” are practically an expectation for a company as old as Google. He also emphasised its early investment in AI as a strong foundation to move forward from.
“Thanks to those early investments, Google’s products are better than ever. And we’re getting ready to share some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses, too,” Pichai said. “We have a substantial opportunity in front of us with AI across our products and are prepared to approach it boldly and responsibly.”
Google isn’t the only company facing redundancies at the moment as earlier this week Microsoft also announced lay-offs affecting 10,000 staff. This included its Xbox division, as several employees from 343 Industries, Bethesda, and The Coalition lost their jobs.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
