Alphabet Inc.’s plan to reduce headcount by more than 6% — about 12,000 roles — is adding to mass job cuts that are accelerating at technology companies around the world.
The tech sector announced 97,171 job cuts in 2022, up 649% compared to the previous year, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Disclosures about cuts at Google’s parent company, Microsoft Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. have added another 30,000 positions in January.
Big tech companies like these benefitted from a boom in e-commerce spending and remote work that kicked off during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Now, many of these businesses are reporting disappointing growth rates and dealing with sagging share prices as customer behavior returns to normal. Their leaders are saying they expanded too quickly, with Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai writing that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,’’ in an email to employees on Friday.