Google to hand out 100 pink slips

Sensing that it does not need many people for its 'reduced rate of hiring,' Internet search giant Google is laying off about 100 employees from its recruitment team and has also terminated its contracts with external hiring agencies, a company official said.

In a statement posted on the company's official blog, Google Vice-President, People Operations, Laszlo Bock said, 'Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate.

'Given the state of the economy, we recognised that we needed fewer people focused on hiring,' Bock said, following which it decided to 'wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google.

'However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organisation by approximately 100 positions,' Bock noted.

'We know this change will be very difficult for the people concerned, and we hope that many of them will be able to find new roles at Google. They helped build this company, new hire by new hire, and we are enormously grateful for everything they have done,' he added.

In another statement on the blog, Google Senior Vice President, Engineering and Research, Alan Eustace said the company was eliminating some engineering jobs at various locations across the world.

Eustace said that Google had been hiring 'outstanding engineers in a wide mix of countries. Having offices distributed around the globe is critical to Google's long-term success, and today we have thousands of engineers working in 40 offices in more than 20 countries.

'It has enabled us to make significant improvements in our products and attract more users globally. It has also presented unique challenges. The most difficult of these being to coordinate our efforts across all geographies, and provide engineers with significant, meaningful projects that make a real difference to people's lives.'

Eustace further said that the company in last September asked engineers in Phoenix, Arizona to move to other offices and now it is 'doing the same thing in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden.

'Our strong desire is to keep as many of these 70 engineering employees at Google as possible. However, we do recognise the upheaval and heartache that these changes may have on Google families, and that we may not be able to keep 100 per cent of these exceptional employees.

'Our long-term goal is not to trim the number of people we have working on engineering projects or reduce our global presence, but create a smaller number of more effective engineering sites, which will ensure that innovation and speed remain at our core," the official added.

Also see
Pink slip mayhem continues
Meltdown: Thousands of jobs to go globally!
Secrets of success from Google co-founder