Google lays off hundreds of employees in bid to minimise expenses

In a bid to lower its expenses, Google has laid off hundreds of its employees from several departments including the engineering division, the hardware division that makes the Fitbit, and Pixel phone, as well as employees working under Google Virtual Assistant, Bloomberg reported.

The cuts continue a trend of tech layoffs after large companies such as Google, Meta, and Amazon laid off thousands of workers last year. Ten days into this year, more companies have announced job cuts.

Earlier on Wednesday, Amazon let off hundreds of employees from its MGM studios, Prime Video, and Twitch streaming service.

This month, Xerox announced plans to reduce its workforce by 15% of its 23,000 employees, while Unity Software, a provider of video game software, announced plans to slash 1,800 positions, or 25% of its workforce.

Since July 2022, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, has pushed the corporation to narrow its focus and slash costs as the state of the world economy worsened.

In January 2023, Google made the biggest layoffs the firm has ever done, laying off 12,000 employees, or 6% of its workforce. Since then, as the corporation concentrates on the expanding subject of generative artificial intelligence, management has stated that they will attempt to dramatically lower costs.

With 182,000 workers as of September 30, Google said that the layoffs on Wednesday were part of a series of reorganisations carried out in the regular course of business.

The Google worker union on X tweeted, "Our members and colleagues work diligently every day to create excellent products for our users. It’s unacceptable for the company to continue terminating employees while it earns billions every quarter. We will continue to fight until our jobs are secure".