Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai announces 10% job cuts in managerial roles

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a 10 per cent reduction in managerial roles, aiming to improve efficiency in response to rising AI competition and economic challenges

Google has cut 10 per cent of its managerial positions, including directors and vice-presidents. Chief executive Sundar Pichai confirmed the decision during an all-hands meeting, underscoring the company’s ongoing efforts to streamline operations amidst growing competition from AI-focused rivals like OpenAI, which increasingly challenge Google’s dominance in search, reported Business Insider.

 

The latest round of layoffs, announced on Wednesday, is part of a broader restructuring strategy that has been unfolding over the past two years. While some affected managers were reassigned to individual contributor roles, many positions were eliminated.

 

The company’s cost-cutting journey began in 2022 when Pichai set a goal to make Google 20 per cent more efficient. Last year, the restructuring resulted in over 12,000 employees losing their jobs—a significant downsizing for one of the world’s largest tech giants.

 

 

Redefining ‘Googleyness’ 

At the same meeting, Pichai introduced a refined vision for ‘Googleyness’, a term that once broadly defined the traits of an ideal Google employee but had grown too ambiguous. Pichai reimagined it with a sharper focus on mission-driven work, innovation, and teamwork.

 

He emphasised the importance of creating helpful products, taking bold risks, fostering a scrappy attitude, and collaborating effectively. “Updating modern Google,” as Pichai described it, is now central to the company’s ethos.

 

Job cuts and restructuring trend 

Google’s decision reflects a larger trend sweeping through the tech industry. With rapid advancements in AI and economic pressures, tech giants are cutting jobs and reducing middle management to empower individual contributors.

 

The scale of layoffs across the sector is staggering. In the first half of 2024 alone, over 98,000 employees from 333 tech companies were let go, according to Layoffs.fyi. In May alone, 39 companies collectively laid off nearly 10,000 workers.

 

Other tech giants follow suit 

Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and TikTok have also been aggressively restructuring. Microsoft reportedly laid off over 1,000 employees across divisions, including Azure cloud and gaming, following its Activision Blizzard acquisition. The gaming division alone saw 1,900 job cuts.

 

Amazon also trimmed its workforce across several units, including Audible, Prime Video, and Twitch, which lost 35 per cent of its staff, or roughly 500 employees.

 

TikTok reduced its global workforce by over 1,000 employees, impacting operations and marketing teams amidst regulatory challenges. Meta enacted smaller cuts within its Reality Lab division, which focuses on metaverse and AR/VR projects.

 

Meanwhile, companies like Toshiba and Indeed have also implemented significant layoffs. Toshiba announced plans to cut 4,000 domestic jobs, while Indeed let go of 8 per cent of its workforce during its second wave of layoffs in May.