Google Singapore hit by layoffs, employees brace for more

EMPLOYEES in Google’s Singapore office have been laid off as part of a global retrenchment exercise that impacted hundreds of workers across several divisions, sources close to the matter told The Business Times on Friday (Jan 12).

The sources were unable to determine how deep the cuts were locally. Details have been scant, the people said, and no companywide notice of the exercise has been sent by management.

Google and other big tech companies are under threat from rivals and upstarts developing products in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Google executives have sworn to free up resources to invest in the biggest priorities – such as generative AI – while preserving margins, The New York Times reported.

A Google spokesperson told BT that organisational changes have been ongoing since the second half of last year to allow the company to invest in the biggest opportunities.

“Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organisational changes, which include some role eliminations globally. We’re continuing to support any impacted employees as they look for new roles here at Google and beyond,” the spokesperson said, without commenting on the impact on the Singapore office.

Google laid off employees in the core engineering division, as well as people working on augmented reality and the voice assistant product Google Assistant, US-based news outlets reported on Thursday.

In Singapore, one source who is a member of the Google community said he has heard others share of cuts in the cloud services, tech support and Google Play teams.

Google has a large online community of present and former staff who have helped each other find work.

A round of layoffs had also been announced around this time last year. Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai had said in a memo in January 2023 that the company would slash 12,000 roles as it had overhired when times were rosier for tech.