Google owner Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is to cut thousands of jobs in the latest round of cost-cutting measures in the global tech sector.
Around 12,000 people from offices around the world face being laid off, according to a memo from chief executive Sundar Pichai.
The cuts amount to around 6% of its workforce.
Alphabet has been rapidly expanding its headcount in recent years, preparing for a “different economic reality than the one we face today,” Pichai said.
“I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” he added.
Alphabet’s cuts take the total number of tech sector layoffs to 50,000 so far this year, according to the website Layoffs.fyi.
Sector titans Microsoft, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Capital One Financial most recently have collectively fired tens of thousands of staff.
Tech companies saw a boom during the pandemic, as people took to the internet when being forced to stay indoors due to lockdowns.
Now, companies are facing decreased customer spending and higher operating costs, pushed by inflation.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook owner Meta, implied in November that tech companies had been misled by their strong performances during the pandemic, which subsequently led to over-investment.
Mass job cuts are “a rip the band-aid off moment,” suggested Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, as companies aim “to preserve margins and cut costs in a softer macro” environment.