Google axes 12,000 jobs across different sectors, bringing Big Tech job cuts to 48,000 in 30 days.

Google is cutting 12,000 jobs, or around 6% of its employees, making it the latest tech business to do so as the COVID-19 pandemic-related economic boom fades.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of the Silicon Valley behemoth, informed employees of the layoffs by email on Friday. The communication was also uploaded to the business’ press blog.

The layoffs come on top of the tens of thousands of other job cuts previously disclosed by big companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta, and others as they tighten their belts in the face of a gloomier future for the sector. At least 48,000 job losses have been announced by significant corporations in the industry only this month.

We’ve experienced periods of extraordinary growth over the last two years, Pichai wrote. “We hired for a different economic reality than the one we confront today in order to meet and fuel that development.”

He said that the layoffs are a result of Google’s “rigorous investigation” of its business practices.

According to Pichai, the positions being terminated “cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels, and regions.”

The business stated in a regulatory statement made at the end of last year that it employed close to 187,000 individuals.

Google, which was established some 25 years ago, was “bound to go through challenging economic cycles,” according to Pichai.

These are crucial times to narrow our focus, redesign our cost structure, and allocate our resources to our top priorities, he added.

The letter from Pchai states that there will be layoffs both here and abroad.

Microsoft slashed 10,000 jobs earlier this week, or about 5% of its workforce. Although only a small portion of Amazon’s 1.5 million-person workforce, the company has announced plans to slash 18,000 employees. Salesforce is cutting around 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, while Facebook’s parent company Meta is eliminating 11,000 roles, or 13% of its workforce. Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has reduced employment since he bought the business last fall.

Despite indications that the economy is slowing down, employment in the United States has remained strong, and another 223,000 jobs were created in December. However, the tech industry expanded incredibly quickly over the past few years due to rising demand brought on by people starting to work remotely.

Many CEOs of businesses have been criticized for expanding too quickly, but even with the most recent round of layoffs, these businesses are still significantly bigger than they were before the pandemic’s economic boom started.