Google lays off 40-45 staff from its news division: Report

Tech giant Google has laid off about 40-45 staff from its news division this week, a report by CNBC has stated. A spokesperson for the Alphabet Workers Union who was unable to provide an exact number of layoffs stated that 40 and 45 employees of Google News had lost their employment, the report said.

The report also cited a Google spokesperson who said that there are still hundreds of employees working in the news division. 

“We’re deeply committed to a vibrant information ecosystem, and news is a part of that long-term investment,” spokesperson was quoted by CNBC. The spokesperson also said added that small number of staff were affected and the company is also supporting the laid off employees to help everyone find new opportunities at Google and elsewhere with providing transition time, outplacement services, and severance pay.

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Earlier last month, Google parent company Alphabet announced that it is laying off employees from its global recruiting team as the tech giant continues to slow hiring, Reuters had reported. The California-based tech giant was the first ‘Big Tech’ company to lay off employees, after rivals like Meta, Microsoft and Amazon downsized aggressively earlier in 2023 as a weak economy put an end to their pandemic-led hiring sprees.

Meanwhile, in January year, Google cut 12,000 jobs or about 6 percent of the workforce around the world. In addition to this, Google had slowed hiring. During that time, CEO Sundar Pichai had also said he was taking full responsibility for the decision adding that he was “deeply sorry" for the layoffs at Alphabet.