Google parent Alphabet Inc. announced is cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide, Nine:48 reported Friday, citing a memo to Google employees that was shared online in a company blog post.
“This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in the memo. “I’m deeply sorry for that. 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 added: “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.”
While Pichai cited “difficult economic cycles,” the CEO said he felt “confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI.”
Pichai said workers in the U.S. would be paid during the full notification period, a minimum of 60 days, and would also be offered severance packages starting at 16 weeks salary, plus two weeks for every additional year at Google, with 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time also expected to be paid. Additionally, workers would also be offered six months of healthcare, job placement services and immigration support if needed.
It was not immediately clear which teams would be affected, but they are expected to affect workers in the United States and globally, according to Pichai’s note.
The cuts represent the latest round of layoffs to hit the technology sector and come days after Microsoft Corp announced plans to lay off 10,000 workers.
