Alphabet Axes Hundreds Of Staff From ‘Core’ Organisation

More cost-cutting at Alphabet’s Google with hundreds of staff reportedly being laid off in a move that continues the job loss trend of 2023 and 2024.

According to CNBC it has learned that Google is laying off at least 200 employees from its “Core” organisation, which includes key teams and engineering talent.

And what is more, it seems that some of these roles are reportedly being outsourced to countries such as Mexico and India.

Google layoffs

The job losses reportedly took place ahead of the release of Alphabet’s impressive first quarter financial results, when it revealed it would pay its first ever cash dividend, on the back of profits that had risen 57 percent, and revenues that risen 15 percent.

According to CNBC, Alphabet’s Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind Google’s flagship products and for protecting users’ online safety.

Core teams include key technical units from IT, its Python developer team, technical infrastructure, security foundation, app platforms, core developers, and various engineering roles.

At least 50 of the 200 plus positions eliminated were in engineering at the company’s offices in Sunnyvale, California.

The Core layoffs also include the governance and protected data group.

Many Core teams will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.

Asim Husain, VP of Google Developer Ecosystem, reportedly announced news of the layoffs to his team in an email last week. He also spoke at a town hall and told staff that this was the biggest planned reduction for his team this year, an internal document shows.

“We intend to maintain our current global footprint while also expanding in high-growth global workforce locations so that we can operate closer to our partners and developer communities,” Husain was quoted by CNBC as writing in the email.

Google confirmed the Core reorganisation and layoffs to CNBC, and a spokesperson reportedly said that employees will be able to apply for open roles within Google and to access outplacement services.

“As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” the spokesperson said in an email. “A number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities.”

Previous jobs losses

Google has been cutting thousands of jobs since early 2023.

In January 2023 Alphabet had announced that it would cut 12,000 jobs worldwide, or roughly 6 percent of its workforce.

In June 2023 it also emerged that Google was axing staff in its highly popular mapping service Waze, which it had acquired for $1.3 billion back in 2013.

In September 2023 it was reported that Google was cutting hundreds of jobs in its global recruiting team as part of a broader pullback in hiring over the next several quarters.

In January 2024 CEO Sundar Pichai warned staff to expect more job losses as the firm “will be investing in our big priorities this year.”

That came after Google confirmed it was laying off hundreds of employees across multiple teams in January, with hundreds at Google’s Voice Assistant unit being let go, and a few hundred roles also being eliminated in the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit.

Google also confirmed that confirmed hundreds of job losses in 30,000 strong ad sales team.

In April CFO Ruth Porat announce that the company’s finance department would undergo restructuring, entailing layoffs and moving positions to Bangalore and Mexico City.

Last month Google had also terminated approximately 50 employees, after a series of protests over a contract to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

Those fired staff have filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).