Google to slow down hiring and reevaluate investments for this year
Google to slow down hiring and reevaluate investments for this year
Google will be slowing down its pace of hiring and reevaluating its investments in light of the economic uncertainity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement to The Verge, Google confirmed that it will slow down the pace of hiring while maintaining momentum in a small number of strategic areas, and onboarding the people who have been hired recently. Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo to employees to explain the company's decisions:
“We believe now is the time to significantly slow down the pace of hiring, while maintaining momentum in a small number of strategic areas where users and businesses rely on Google for ongoing support, and where our growth is critical to their success,” Pichai said in the memo.
“By dialing back our plans in other areas, we can ensure Google emerges from this year at a more appropriate size and scale than we would otherwise. That means we need to carefully prioritize hiring employees who will address our greatest user and business needs.”
The company will carry out cost cutting measures such as "recalibrating the focus and pace" of investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non business essential marketing and travel.
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, Google's revenue has been hit badly as major advertising customers in the retail and travel sectors scale back on their ad spending.