Google layoffs reach Indian shores; company fires 453 employees in India

India has fired 453 employees from various departments. The news came in late Thursday night from sources, as reported by Hindu Business Line.

The report added that an email was sent out by Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice president, Google India, to the concerned employees.

Last month, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, announced that as a measure to cut costs, 12,000 employees, or 6 per cent of its total headcount, would be sacked.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also mailed the employees, stating that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

“We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices,” he had said.

In his email to employees on January 20, Pichai wrote that the company has “undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company.”

These layoffs in Google’s India operations are in a series of layoffs in the tech sector, in recent months. Facing macroeconomic headwinds, tech giants like Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon announced massive layoff exercises.

In January, Microsoft announced it would lay off 10,000 employees, which amounted to nearly 5 per cent of its workforce. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, also conducted a similar exercise, eliminating 11,000 positions globally. Similary, in November, Amazon announced it would lay off 18,000 employees across the world.

Shortly after closing his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in late October, new owner Elon Musk also announced that the company would lay off 3,700 employees.