A spokesperson for Google confirmed that “a few hundred roles globally” would be included in the company’s latest round of layoffs. Image: Sarah Blocksidge, via Pexels
After confirming massive job cuts to their hardware and central engineering teams just days ago, it was revealed today that Google would be laying off more staff, this time from its advertising sales team.
While it’s unclear exactly just how many roles are impacted, it’s estimated that the combined total is around 1000 positions.
A spokesperson for Google said that “a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated” from their advertising sales team as part of restructuring efforts, which they say are being done to improve support for small and medium-sized businesses using their services.
“Every year we go through a rigorous process to structure our team to provide the best service to our Ads customers. We map customers to the right specialist teams and sales channels to meet their service needs,” said the spokesperson in an emailed statement.
The spokesperson also said that “impacted employees will be able to apply for open roles on the team or elsewhere at Google.”
Layoffs affecting the hardware and central engineering teams would include employees working on Google Assistant, Nest, Pixel and Fitbit technologies.
The company’s augmented reality team would also be affected by the cuts.
The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA), representing those employed by Google’s parent company, released an official statement regarding the recent layoffs.
“On Wednesday night, over a thousand Google workers were shocked to learn via email that they were being laid off,” writes union president and Google software engineer Parul Koul.
“These firings are coming less than a year after Alphabet laid off 12,000 of our coworkers in 2023, and the terms of severance have only gotten worse. These layoffs are unnecessary and counterproductive.”
“Alphabet says it is doing layoffs in the interest of efficiency, but we know the truth, because we see the real impacts. The layoffs introduce chaos and instability into the workplace and force workers to make do with less.”
“The real reason for them is simple: corporate greed. In the last year, the company earned tens of billions in profit, held over $100 billion in cash reserves, and raised its stock by 40 percent. Executive pay has gone untouched, all while thousands of our coworkers have had their lives turned upside down and those that remain on the job work in constant anxiety that they will be next.”
Google isn’t the only company to start the year with mass layoffs.
Earlier this month, Amazon announced layoffs to hundreds of staff in its MGM Studios and Prime Video divisions, and a further 500 staff at Twitch, the company’s immensely popular live-streaming service.
