Alphabet Workers Union Calls Google Layoffs ‘Needless’
Google has made billions of dollars, but its mass layoffs are needless according to the Alphabet Workers Union.
The union commented on Google’s decision to lay off thousands of employees in engineering, voice-assistance, and hardware teams. “Tonight, Google began another round of needless layoffs,” the union wrote in a tweet.
Despite the controversy, Google defended the layoffs as necessary to increase efficiency and focus resources. The job cuts target teams dedicated to Google Assistant, Fitbit, and augmented reality hardware.
Can’t Fire Workers While Making Billions, Union Says
The union found it unethical for Google to continue layoffs given the company’s lucrative revenues. Google generated $76.3bn (£59.9bn) in revenues in the third quarter of 2023, recording a net income of $19.7bn.
Google maintains that layoffs are necessary to adapt to evolving industry dynamics and economic uncertainty.
However, Google has been conducting mass layoffs, with thousands of jobs being cut. In January 2023, Google decided to cut 6% of its workforce, totaling about 12,000 employees.
As the tech industry continues to automate numerous jobs, the need for manpower in various areas has decreased. This has made layoffs necessary for cost-cutting and increased efficiency, according to Google and other tech giants.
Regarding the latest layoffs, Google said it would cut a few hundred roles across hardware, engineering, and AI assistance teams.
The Alphabet Workers Union later determined that about 1,000 layoffs had been made in this round, with the majority in Google’s augmented reality hardware division.
On the same day, Google announced that 17 “underutilized” features of Google Assistant are going to be deprecated. These include features such as starting a meditation session with Calm using voice commands, playing audiobooks, and sending emails.
Mass Layoffs: A Growing Trend
Unfortunately, mass layoffs have become a recurring trend across companies of varying scales. Google is not alone, as Meta and Spotify have also conducted mass layoffs.
It’s worth noting that Spotify had already conducted two rounds of layoffs earlier the same year.
Other companies experiencing layoffs include Amazon, with announcements of job cuts in its Prime Video, studio units, and Twitch, its live-streaming platform.
In March 2023, Amazon announced 9,000 layoffs in addition to the 18,000 job cuts announced in January.