News of Google layoffs has struck again as the company has moved to eliminate at least 200 “core” employees from its U.S. offices. The Google job cuts don’t come as a surprise considering the job climate but what is surprising is the decision to lay off employees from Core teams that are critical to the business. The company doesn’t intend to work with a smaller team and get by either. Instead Google’s job relocation efforts in India and Mexico will ensure those positions are filled up by employees outside the States.
Image: Google
Do Google Layoffs Suggest They Might Start Decentralizing Resources from the U.S.?
There have been no signs of industry-wide moves to start hiring outside of the U.S. and currently, only Google job relocations to India and Mexico have been discussed publicly. Whether this is a one-time decision or there will be more such moves from the company, we do not know, but it appears to be a limited move for now. Certain companies like Google often seem stable and well-performing enough that layoffs do not feel as necessary, but there are a lot of internal business decisions that we aren’t necessarily kept in the loop about.
The Core team being affected by the Google layoffs includes engineers who handle the foundation of the company’s flagship products, oversee user safety online, and maintain the company’s global IT infrastructure. The individuals manage the critical functioning of a majority of Google’s services, which makes it all the more unexpected to see the company choose to let them go. At least 50 of these positions included engineering positions from the company’s Sunnyvale California offices.
CRN received a statement from a spokesperson from the company stating that it was “simplifying structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities while reducing bureaucracy and layers.” CRN also found that the company’s headcount as of March 31, 2024, has gone down by nearly 10,000 as compared to March 2023. Google currently has 180,895 employees according to their filings with the SEC.
Why Are Google Job Relocations Taking Place?
Earlier this year, CFO Ruth Porat announced layoffs at Google’s finance department and restructuring efforts there as they moved to keep up with the shifting tech world. CNBC reported that in continuation of that news, Prabhakar Raghavan from the company had stated that Google would move some jobs to Bangalore and Mexico City to build teams closer to their users in key markets, including India and Brazil. Asim Husain, vice president of Google Developer Ecosystem, told his team something similar, explaining that the relocation intended to bring the company “closer to our partners and developer communities” abroad.
The current round of Google job cuts could also have similar intentions, moving jobs to centers of importance while also availing of cheaper labor from these regions. If it turns out to make a big difference in their financial expenses, we could perhaps see other departments and teams experience such a shift as well.
Heavy AI Investments Planned for the Future Also Have a Role to Play
Google is by no means struggling financially to require any cost-cutting efforts or resource reallocations. The reason for Google’s layoffs is purely profit-driven as the company continues its exploration of novel business plans and turns up its ever-present flood lights on AI. The company announced its investment plans towards the internet infrastructure in the U.S., more specifically, towards their data centers. “Google is announcing $3 billion in investments to build or expand our data center campuses in Virginia and Indiana,” the company stated.
This news came with a consolation of an additional $75 million USD AI Opportunity Fund made possible with support from their philanthropic arm, which was directed towards nonprofits and other education sectors. This fund was set up to help provide U.S. citizens with training for AI skills at no cost, also launching the Google AI Essentials course to help with the mission. While these philanthropic investments by the company will be very useful to a number of citizens, it is still hard to picture the full extent of Google’s investments.
According to Inc., Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told a conference that spending on AI could cost the company more than $100 billion USD, with the cost of equipment to build these AIs being one of the biggest upcoming expenses. With such an expansive spending goal in mind, cutting down on spending wherever possible and moving to cheaper labor markets seems to be the way forward. Those affected by the current Google layoffs are likely not the last.