Entering the new year 2024, Google has laid off a series of employees working on notable projects such as Google Assistant - a voice assistant that helps users check weather information, set alarms and look up information.
Google's layoffs also affect its hardware division, which makes Google Nest, Fitbit, and Pixel, as well as its augmented reality team. The company's core engineering team is also being affected. Google said the cuts will be global.
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| Google says it is helping find other positions for some of the laid-off employees. |
The job cuts come as Google’s core search business feels the heat from artificial intelligence offerings from rivals like Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI. On a call with investors, Google executives pledged to take a hard look at their operations to identify areas where they can cut back and free up resources to invest in their biggest priorities.
A spokesperson for the union representing workers at Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said the layoffs, which affect more than 1,000 people, are the largest since January 2023. That underscores the pressure on companies from Big Tech to startups to cut costs after a massive hiring spree in 2020-2021.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the union figures. In California, Google filed paperwork with regulators to announce plans to cut 703 jobs. As of September 2023, Google employed 182,000 people worldwide .
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