NI Bureau
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has announced layoffs within its global recruitment team as the technology giant slows down its hiring efforts. This move, disclosed on Wednesday, involves the reduction of several hundred employees, but it is not part of a widespread layoff initiative. Alphabet intends to retain the majority of the team to focus on hiring for critical positions while also assisting the affected workers in finding new roles within or outside the company.
Alphabet is notably the first major tech company to implement layoffs in this quarter, following similar actions taken earlier in 2023 by companies such as Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. These companies had aggressively expanded their workforces during the pandemic but have now scaled back due to a weakening economy.
In January, Alphabet, headquartered in California, had already reduced its workforce by 6% by cutting approximately 12,000 jobs.
It’s worth noting that layoffs in the United States have increased significantly, with figures rising more than threefold in August compared to July and nearly fourfold compared to the same period a year ago, as reported by employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had predicted an approximately 8% increase in new claims for state unemployment benefits for the week ending September 9, following a previous decline of 13,000 claims to 216,000 in the preceding week.
