“We Have To Make Tough Choices”: After Already Laying Off Thousands, Google Prepping For More Layoffs

The illusion of a booming labor market may not last for much longer.

At least if Google is any barometer, that it. The tech giant has joined a long list of names that has informed its employees that layoffs are on their way, according to a new report from The Verge. 

Following “thousands” of layoffs the company has already made, CEO Sundar Pichai sent out a message to employees this week that additional layoffs would be on their way. 

He wrote in an internal Google memo on Wednesday: “We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year.”

“The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices,” he continued. 

Referencing the 12,000 layoffs the company made in 2023, Pichai wrote: “These role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions, and will not touch every team. But I know it’s very difficult to see colleagues and teams impacted.”

“Many of these changes are already announced, though to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted,” he wrote. 

The Verge reports that “role eliminations” are coming and that Pichai said Google would be “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas.”

As we wrote to our pro subscribers just days ago, 2024 started off with a catastrophic jobs report. We noted first that the jobs print from 10 of the past 11 months has been revised lower.

And we also noted the BLS reported that in December the number of full-time jobs plunged by 1.531 million to 133.2 million, the biggest monthly drop since the record Covid crash of 14.7 million jobs!

You can read more about the state of the most recent jobs report here. Otherwise, fasten your seatbelts for that “soft landing” that’s definitely, certainly, undoubtedly going to cruise right past a recession and land smoothly that we’ve been hearing so much about.