“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,” reportedly reads Sundar Pichai’s internal memo addressed to the affected staff.
The affected employees in the US have already been notified of the cuts, whereas it will take Google some more time to lay off staff in other regions due to different legislation and bureaucracy.
These cuts come during a period of economic uncertainty and looming recession in the US. Another technological giant, Microsoft, is also laying some 10,000 employees this week. The cited reason for the layoffs, revealed by CEO Satya Nadella at the World Economic Forum in Davos, was the unfortunate slowdown of the global economy, which has affected nearly all walks of life. Just like Google, Microsoft is a pretty major employer, having a workforce of nearly 221,000 as of mid-2022.
