Market leader Google has joined the global tech lay off, cutting 12,000 jobs in reponse to worse than expected economic conditions and a slowing of growth in digital advertising.
Reports emerged of termination by email as Google’s owner Alphabet announced via a blog that it was slicing off 6% of its workforce.
Some who had not read their email Friday US time, unaware they'd been laid off, were unable to use security passes.
In the US, Google is reported to be paying generous severance but in Australia this will be governed by local laws: "Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices."
Google follows Meta, Amazon, Snap and Microsoft in shaving workforces which ballooned durting strong online growth caused by a consumer shift to digital during the pandemic.
CEO Sundar Pichai apologised.
"This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that.
"The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.
"Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."
Google in October reported lower than expected September quarter revenue results as a slow down in digital advertising platforms took hold.
Third quarter revenue was up 6% to $US69.1 billion, reflecting growth in Search and momentum in Cloud, but lower than expectations by market analysts.
YouTube revenue fell for the first time, down 0.2% to $US7.07 billion.
Google network advertising came in at $US54.48 billion, only slightly ahead of the $53.13 billion for the same quarter last year.
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