Search giant to slow hiring for the coming year, while Windows-owner has laid off workers
Google and Microsoft are cutting back on new hires as the inflation-plagued US economy threatens to tip into a full-on recession. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a staff email on Tuesday that hiring would slow for the remainder of the year, while Microsoft laid workers off across multiple divisions and offices on Monday, even as the company insisted it would boost headcount over the next year.
Pichai specifically cited the threat of economic recession in his email to Google staff, as cited by the media, explaining that the company will focus on “engineering, technical and other critical roles” for the rest of the year and for 2023 in the face of an “uncertain global economic outlook.” He called on employees to “be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days,” acknowledging that “in some cases, that means consolidating where investments overlap and streamlining processes.”