Google Continues to Lay Off Hundreds of Advertising Employees – Over a Thousand Dismissed Just Last Week

Just last week, we reported that Google had laid off hundreds of employees; ultimately, more than a thousand were let go. This week, news of additional hundreds of layoffs has emerged. Last week, over a thousand employees from various divisions, including Pixel devices, Next, Fitbit, Google Assistant, and core engineering, were dismissed. Now, in this new round of layoffs, Google is affecting “hundreds of positions” within its advertising sales team.

This information came to light through a leaked internal memo sent by Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, to his employees via email. In the memo, he informed employees yesterday about the decision to reduce headcount, which will impact hundreds of jobs.

“Every year, we undergo a thorough process to structure our team to best serve our advertising customers,” Google said in an official statement, according to Engadget.

“We allocate the appropriate specialist teams and sales channels to meet our customers’ service needs. As part of this process, several hundred positions worldwide are being eliminated, and affected employees will be able to apply for vacant positions on the team or elsewhere at Google.”

Google did not disclose the exact number of employees laid off from its advertising division.

As reported, a Google spokesperson declined to provide information on the exact number of employees affected by this new round of layoffs. The latest cuts at Google continue the trend of layoffs in tech companies, with many cutting thousands of jobs in 2023.

2023 saw a significant number of job reductions. Among the more notable companies affected were Amazon, AMD, Electronic Arts, Intel, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook), and Spotify. Just two weeks into 2024, the trend continues strong, with companies such as Discord, Meta, Unity, Duolingo, and most recently, Amazon’s streaming division Twitch, joining the fray.

For now, these hundreds of layoffs in the advertising division appear to be a relatively small percentage of workers. According to recent reports, it was already discussed in December that Google would reorganize its advertising sales unit. As of this data, the unit had over 30,000 employees until last December. The restructuring revolves around employing machine learning to help clients purchase ads.

On one hand, while there are thousands of layoffs, Google is also increasing salaries for selected researchers at DeepMind, its AI-focused division. The reasoning is clear – offering competitive salaries prevents these researchers from moving to rival companies like OpenAI. The creators of ChatGPT are known for paying their engineers well, with salaries reportedly reaching $800,000 per year.

This article, originally titled “Google now lays off hundreds of employees in advertising (last week it laid off over a thousand),” first appeared on El Chapuzas Informático.