Preparing for an economic downturn spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will “significantly slow” hiring for the remainder of the year as part of broader cost cutting measures, CEO Sundar Pichai told workers in a memo first obtained by Bloomberg.
According to the report, the tech behemoth still plans to on-board several employees hired prior to the announcement and will continue to fill roles “in a small number of strategic areas.”
Alphabet also plans to dial back the “pace of our investments in areas like data centers and machines,” Pichai wrote.
The company, which has recruited 4,000 people so far this year, hired 20,000 new workers in 2019 and planned to add a similar number in 2020, prior to the pandemic
Alphabet’s decision to contract its recruitment practices follows news of a hiring freeze at Microsoft, first reported by Business Insider.
More than 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in recent weeks, as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to upend business practices around the world, and leading institutions, like the International Monetary Fund, warn that the global economy is approaching “the worst recession since the Great Depression.
“Just like the 2008 financial crisis, the entire global economy is hurting, and Google GOOGL and Alphabet are not immune to the effects of this global pandemic,” Pichai wrote. “We exist in an ecosystem of partnerships and interconnected businesses, many of whom are feeling significant pain.”
In late March, Google, like many companies, announced that its prestigious summer internship program would be conducted virtually. According to the College Reaction/Axios Poll, nearly 3 in 4 college students with jobs or internships have had plans disrupted because of the pandemic. Four million students will graduate into the coronavirus economy this spring.
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