Alphabet Cutting Hundreds Of Jobs In Recruitment Unit

Alphabet’s Google is once again making a number of job cuts to its workforce, with its global recruiting unit bearing the brunt of the redundancies.

CNBC reported that Google is cutting hundreds of jobs in its global recruiting organisation as part of a broader pullback in hiring over the next several quarters.

It should be remembered that in January Alphabet had announced that it would cut 12,000 jobs worldwide, or roughly 6 percent of its workforce.

Recruitment cuts

A couple of months later CEO Sundar Pichai noted that some Google offices are like a ‘ghost towns’, in response to staff pushback to the firm’s decision that cloud employees should share desks.

In June Google asked remote workers to reconsider their working arrangements, amid crackdown on those not adhering to Google’s hybrid work schedule, as it seeks to encourage staff to consistently return to the office.

Now CNBC reported that it obtained a copy of a video meeting held on Wednesday between Brian Ong, Google’s recruiting vice president, and Google workers.

“We unfortunately need to make a significant reduction to the size of the recruiting organisation,” Ong reportedly said.

“It’s not something that was an easy decision to make, and it definitely isn’t a conversation any of us wanted to have again this year,” Ong reportedly said. “Given the base of hiring that we’ve received the next several quarters, it’s the right thing to do overall.”

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Staff involved in the recruiting group reductions will receive emails starting Wednesday, Ong added.

Ong also mentioned that staff hit in the latest layoffs will retain access to offices this week and online systems for longer.

Google staff have previously walked out over the cuts, and have criticised the company for abruptly cutting off access to those who lost their jobs in January.

Google confirmation

Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson, confirmed the latest cuts in an email to CNBC.

“We continue to invest in top engineering and technical talent while also meaningfully slowing the pace of our overall hiring,” Mencini reportedly wrote.

“In line with this, the volume of requests for our recruiters has gone down,” Mencini wrote. “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.”

Alphabet had already slowed its hiring practices. Last October Google said it would cut hiring by half during Q4 of 2022.