Layoffs continue, as Google axes 12,000

Google has become the latest technology company to announce mass layoffs, as it today told employees it was eliminating 12,000 roles.

Employees were informed of the redundancies this morning via email, in a message from Google and Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai that was also posted to the company's blog.

Titled "A difficult decision to set us up for the future", the post blamed the job losses on "difficult economic cycles". Google previously hired staff based on the "dramatic growth" it had seen over the past two years, Pichai stated, which now did not reflect the "economic reality" today.

No specifics were detailed on the exact roles to be lost, other than that they "cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions".

Google's announcement equates to a loss of around six percent of its total workforce - similar to Microsoft's loss of 10,000 jobs which equated to just under five percent of its overall staff. That news, announced earlier this week, sadly included numerous positions at Xbox and in its game development studios.

Various large technology companies - including Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and Unity - have announced other large-scale cuts over the past few weeks, in response to forecasts of a global economic slowdown later this year.