Google Lays Off Hundreds Of ‘Core’ Employees, Eyes Replacements Abroad

Google’s new round of layoffs hit developers and engineers working inside Google’s Core business unit. Here’s what you need to know.

Just one week after reporting $80.5 billion in sales and $23.7 billion in net income during its first quarter 2024, Google is laying off hundreds of employees—including many in its ‘Core’ team roles—while moving some positions outside the U.S.

Over 50 Google positions were eliminated in engineering at the company’s offices in Sunnyvale, California, according to a recent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN). There were also several hundred positions eliminated from Google offices in Mountain View, Calif. in March, according to the WARN notice.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is laying off a minimum of 200 employees from its ‘core’ organization, CNBC reported, including moving some roles to Mexico and India.

Google’s Core unit is tasked with building the IT foundation behind the company’s flagship product lines as well as technical teams like developers, engineers and technical infrastructure experts.

Many of the Core teams will hire corresponding roles in India and Mexico, CNBC said.

Google Layoffs

In a statement to CRN, a Google spokesperson said that the company is “simplifying our 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.”

“As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” the spokesperson said.

The teams involved in many of the new round of layoffs have been key to Google’s developer tools as it incorporates more AI into products. The Core layoffs also include the governance and protected data group, CNBC said, as lawmakers across the world focus more on regulatory challenges related to AI.

This week, several news outlets also reported that Google fired several of its Python team members.

Google Headcounts Shrinks By 10,000

As of March 31, 2024, Google has 180,895 employees, according to Google’s recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

This employee count is down nearly 10,000 compared to Google’s headcount of 190,711 at the end of March 2023.

Last month, Google’s Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said her company’s finance department would undergo restructuring, entailing layoffs and moving positions to Bangalore and Mexico City.

“The tech sector is in the midst of a tremendous platform shift with Al,” said Porat in an internal memo that was sent to employees. “As a company, this means we have the opportunity to make more helpful products for billions of users and provide faster solutions to our customers, but it also means we collectively have to make tough decisions, including how and where we work to align with our highest priority areas.”

Porat also noted that the company would create hubs for more centralized operations including in Bangalore, Mexico City, Dublin, Chicago and Atlanta.

Google generated a total of $80.5 billion in revenue during first quarter 2024, up 15 percent year over year compared to just shy of $70 billion in Q1 2023.

Google’s cloud business unit, Google Cloud, generated $9.6 billion in sales during Q1 2024, representing an increase of 28 percent year over year.