Major tech firms, including Amazon and Meta, trim workforce amid slowed business predictions in the past year
As a cost-cutting measure, Google has terminated numerous employees in its hardware, voice-assistance, and engineering teams.
The workforce reductions align with Google’s focus on “responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” as stated by the company. In a recent announcement, Google mentioned ongoing organizational changes, including role eliminations globally, reflecting its commitment to adapt. The company had previously disclosed plans to cut several hundred positions across engineering, hardware, and the Assistant teams, with the augmented reality hardware division experiencing the most significant impact. These actions follow earlier commitments from Google and Alphabet executives to streamline operations and reduce costs, as evident in the announcement of laying off 12,000 employees, constituting about 6% of the workforce, a year ago.
On the same day news about the job cuts surfaced, Google announced the deprecation of 17 “underutilized” features of Google Assistant. These include functionalities such as playing audiobooks, sending emails, or initiating a meditation session with Calm through voice commands.
Expressing discontent, the Alphabet Workers Union characterized the layoffs as “another round of needless layoffs” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The union emphasized the dedication of its members and colleagues in developing excellent products for users, stating that the company cannot continue to terminate employees while generating billions in revenue each quarter. The union asserted its commitment to persist in the fight until job security is ensured.
Google encountered unprecedented growth in the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it has had to revise its business predictions due to a deceleration in that expansion over the past year.
This situation is not unique to Google; other technology companies are facing similar challenges. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has cut over 20,000 jobs. In December, Spotify announced its third round of layoffs in 2023, eliminating 17% of its global workforce, as part of a cost-cutting strategy to enhance profitability in the competitive music streaming industry.
Earlier this week, Amazon implemented significant workforce reductions in its Prime Video and studios units, along with plans to lay off approximately 500 employees from its live-streaming platform Twitch. This move comes as part of Amazon’s broader initiative to scale back its workforce, following a hiring surge during the pandemic. In March, the company had disclosed its intention to lay off 9,000 employees, adding to the 18,000 employees slated for layoffs in January 2023.
Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft are currently engaged in a fierce competition for leadership in the artificial intelligence domain. Microsoft, the office software giant, has intensified its efforts to compete with Google in the AI space. In September, Microsoft introduced the Copilot feature, integrating artificial intelligence into products like its search engine Bing, the Edge browser, and Windows, targeting corporate customers.
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