In the wake of a massive round of layoffs earlier this year, Google is once again making headlines by trimming down its workforce, this time specifically in its news division. According to a report by CNBC, Google has eliminated at least 40-45 jobs in the news division. While the company hasn’t confirmed the exact number of employees that have been laid off, a spokesperson from the Alphabet Workers Union did admit job cuts being done in the news division. The news comes just weeks after Google laid off hundreds of employees in the recruiting group last month, according to the same source.
Google, which has been a cornerstone of the tech world, is known for its extensive involvement in news curation and distribution. The Google News platform serves as a hub for top-ranking news articles tailored to readers’ interests and geographic locations.
A Google spokesperson acknowledged the job cuts, but also emphasized the company’s commitment to maintaining a vibrant information ecosystem. The cited source stated, “We’re deeply committed to a vibrant information ecosystem, and news is a part of that long-term investment. We’ve made some internal changes to streamline our organization. A small number of employees were impacted. We’re supporting everyone with a transition period, outplacement services, and severance as they look for new opportunities at Google and beyond.”
Google’s news division has undergone significant restructuring in recent months, with this latest round of job cuts being a continuation of changes initiated earlier this year. Notably, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced plans to downsize its global workforce by 6 percent in January, resulting in layoffs for approximately 12,000 Google employees and individuals in other Alphabet divisions. The company had cited its previous hiring practices, which had been in response to the surge in the digital economy during the pandemic, as a reason for the subsequent downsizing efforts.
This latest wave of layoffs is not an isolated incident within the tech industry. Numerous technology companies have recently announced their own layoffs as part of strategic restructuring efforts. LinkedIn, for instance, recently laid off approximately 668 employees, bringing their total layoffs for 2023 to around 1,400. Similarly, Qualcomm, a major player in the smartphone chipset industry, terminated 1,258 employees, albeit only in two of its California offices.
Source: India Today
