Google to axe 12,000 jobs following 'rigorous review' of tech company

Google has announced it is to lay off 12,000 of its employees, becoming the latest technology firm to cut back on staffing expansions made during the Covid pandemic.

In an email to staff members, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would be "saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people".

Google said it has already sent out a separate letter to members of its workforce in the US who will be affected by the cuts. It remains unclear how many UK jobs will be lost.

The process of communicating redundancies in other countries will "take longer due to local laws and practices", according to the email.

"Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth," Mr Pichai wrote.

"To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."

He added the layoffs reflect a "rigorous review" carried out by Google of its operations, and that the positions being cut are across "Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions".

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs - nearly 5% of its workforce.

Meanwhile, Amazon has said it is removing 18,000 jobs and Facebook parent company Meta is shedding 11,000 positions.

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