Google lays off members of recruiting team as hiring slows

What you need to know

• Google has informed “hundreds” from its global recruiting team that they are being laid off this morning.
• Google declined to comment on what percentage of its workforce this impacts but states a “significant majority” will remain.
• Alphabet laid off 12,000 employees earlier this year, a time when other big tech companies did the same to “protect profits.”

Google is in the process of laying off “hundreds” of personnel from its global recruiting team, according to a report from Semafor. The report notes that Google declined to state what percentage of its workforce this impacts, although it did share that a “significant majority” of the recruiting team will remain.

Apparently, workers who have had their jobs terminated with Google learned about it just this morning.

“As we’ve said, we continue to invest in top engineering and technical talent while also meaningfully slowing the pace of our overall hiring,” a Google spokesperson told Android Central via email. “In line with this, the volume of requests for our recruiters has gone down. In order to continue our important work to ensure we operate efficiently, we’ve made the hard decision to reduce the size of our recruiting team.”

The spokesperson also notes that Google is “supporting everyone impacted with a transition period, outplacement services, and severance” as they seek other positions within or away from the company.

With requests for recruiters dropping, Google’s reduction is due to its global recruiting team becoming a little larger than necessary, particularly during a time when the company has slowed its overall hiring. The good news here is that the recent wave of layoffs does not appear to be tied to a wide-scale reduction in Google’s workforce and only reflects a portion of the company’s recruiting team.

Furthermore, this isn’t the first time Google has laid off members of its recruiting organization, as the company did so over a decade ago in 2009. It’s worth remembering big tech companies struggled with retaining jobs for their staff earlier this year as Alphabet let go of 12,000 people. The cuts accounted for roughly 6% of the company’s employees.

The large wave of layoffs was said to reflect Alphabet’s newfound efforts in “tightening its belt, reflecting a new period of more disciplined and efficient spending.” The job cuts not only affected Google but also other unspecified subsidiaries. CEO Sundar Pichai stated that “tough choices” had to be made as Google looks to continue its mission and place value in its products and services.