Alphabet, the parent company of Google, stated in an email sent to all employees that it would be eliminating approximately 12,000 jobs, or approximately 6% of its global workforce. CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged that it was a “difficult decision to set us up for the future” and expressed his “deeply sorry” to employees who will be fired. Pichai stated that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” and the layoffs will be felt globally and throughout the entire company.

During a period of “dramatic growth,” Alphabet hired a lot of people, but Pichai said, “we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.” Due to the current state of the economy, a number of companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and others, have also made significant and agonizing job cuts.

Google is the last company to implement layoffs because of its strong advertising and cloud computing divisions, among other factors. However, Alphabet’s profit decreased by 27% compared to the previous year’s quarter, and Pichai stated that the company would need to reduce hiring and expenses. However, activists and analysts demanded more drastic reductions, pointing out that the company’s workforce had grown by 20% since 2017.

Pichai stated that employees would be compensated for the full 60-day notification period. Additionally, “and accelerate at least 16 weeks of GSU vesting,” Alphabet will offer severance packages that begin at 16 weeks’ salary and increase by two weeks for each additional year at Google. In addition, it will provide “immigration support for those affected,” six months of healthcare, job placement services, and bonuses in 2022.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta each laid off 10,000, 18,000, and 11,000 employees in the past two weeks. In recent times, Google has also cut costs by discontinuing Stadia and the next-generation Pixelbook laptops. It says it is “getting ready to share some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses” and plans to focus even more on AI.