Google Parent Company Alphabet Lays Off 12K Employees, As Big Tech Job Cuts Continue – SlashGear

In his memo, Pichai says he is “deeply sorry” for having to let go of some of the company’s most talented employees.

“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,” Pichai adds.

Pichai admits that Google has witnessed periods of dramatic growth in the past two years, and decided to ramp up hiring efforts to fuel that growth. However, given that the world is facing a very different economic reality now, it seems the company was evidently forced to let some people go. Pichai goes on to add that Google — now being a 25-year-old company — is “bound to go through difficult economic cycles,” and that moments like these will only help them sharpen its long term focus on emerging technologies.

Google and Microsoft are the latest additions to the long list of tech giants that have announced mass layoffs across the board. The string of tech layoffs started with Twitter letting go of more than 50% of its employees in October 2022. Shortly after the Twitter layoffs, Meta announced that it was letting go of more than 13% of its workforce — a total of 11,000 employees. Amazon followed suit with 18,000 job cuts, followed by layoffs at HP that affected more than 34,000 employees.