Google is slowing down hiring processes for the rest of 2022. Google will continue to support its “most significant opportunities,” according to a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai to staff published by The Verge, and will focus on hiring engineering, technical, and other vital roles. Pichai’s memo comes only weeks after Meta announced similar restrictions after failing to meet revenue expectations.
Google has historically been somewhat resilient to economic uncertainty, and its subsidiary company YouTube performed well in Q4 2020 – the first year of the COVID-19 epidemic. Its ad revenue was reported to be $6.9 billion, up 46% quarter over quarter. In his memo, Pichai also mentions that the business hired around 10,000 people in the second quarter of this year and has a “lot of commitments for Q3.” He goes on to say that Google will put the employment process on hold for the remainder of the year.
“For the balance of 2022 and 2023, we’ll focus our hiring on engineering, technical and other critical roles, and make sure the great talent we do hire is aligned with our long-term priorities,” he reportedly wrote in the memo.
The Alphabet and Google executive also indicated that the company will re-deploy resources to higher priority areas and pause ongoing projects during this period. He said, “Making the company more efficient is up to all of us – we’ll be creating more ways for you all to engage and share ideas to help, so stay tuned.”
Similarly, Snapchat parent company Snap announced in May that it was slowing down the hiring process. It was reported earlier this week that Microsoft laid off a fraction (1%) of its 180,000-person workforce due to growing inflation. This comes after Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, delayed hiring in Windows, Teams, and Office. Microsoft reported solid results in its third fiscal quarter, but the company reduced its fourth-quarter revenue and profitability in early June, blaming the impact of currency swings.