Why Google Layoff 12000 Employees?

After the news of Microsoft and Amazon’s decision to lay off 18,000 and 10,000 employees each, came into the spotlight, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, sent an email to the company workers on Friday, Jan 20, 2023, bearing the devastating news.

On Friday, Jan 20, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced the firing of 12000 employees globally through an official email sent to the workers of the company, affecting 6% of the total global workforce. Pichai said in the email that he takes full responsibility for the decisions that led the tech giant to take such harsh decisions.

Over the past two years, we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today

- Pichai said in the mail sent to employees. Reports say that Google employed around 1.6 lakh people at the end of 2021.

The Mountain View, California-based company Alphabet which boosted its workforce by nearly 15% through 2020 and 14% through 2021, rose 4% on Friday. The company had fallen 30% in the past 12 months, echoing a 24% slump in the broader tech industry.

Alphabet is currently facing competition from Microsoft, the company which is reportedly looking to boost its stake in ChatGPT, a promising chatbot that can answer queries with human-like responses.

The CEO said the layoffs were part of an effort to refocus on the company's core business, as well as its early investments in artificial intelligence, widely known as AI.

These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.

- he said.

We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices

- Sundar Pichai noted this in the email. These employees hail from various departments including strategy, recruiting, and go-to-market teams. The layoff process has already begun in the United States as well as in California and will be followed by many other countries (possibly in India as well) in the upcoming days.

• Google has already cut over 1,800 jobs in California in the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history. According to the reports released by the state, about 1,845 positions, or 15% of the cuts, were in California. Most of the layoffs occurred in and around the company’s headquarters.

• About 1,436 jobs were cut in Google’s hometown, Mountain View, 119 in San Bruno, YouTube’s headquarters, whereas 53 job cuts were in Palo Alto. About 177 job cuts took place in LA, mostly from the company’s Playa Vista campus and 60 in Irvine.

• The employee layoffs at the facilities resulting from this action are expected to commence on March 31.

The tech company has cut 887 jobs at eight locations in New York City, according to the state’s Department of Labor. New York law requires companies to give 90 days' notice, so the effective termination date for those positions is April 28.

According to the email from Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, these are the benefits the laid-off employees will receive:

• Google will pay the laid-off employees during the full notification period of a minimum of 60 days.

• The laid-off staff will receive 16 weeks of severance and an additional two weeks of pay for each year they’ve worked for the company.

• The company will offer bonuses for the year 2022 and the remaining vacation time as well.

• Google will also take responsibility for helping the affected employees with six months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support.

According to the reports, all the benefits announced are only for employees living in the United States. Employees who are working from outside will get support according to local practices.