Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc will be significantly slowing down hiring for the rest of 2020 as per a memo sent out by Alphabet’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The decision comes as Alphabet, Google and its partner services have faced a major hit in revenue owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Just like the 2008 financial crisis, the entire global economy is hurting, and Google and Alphabet are not immune to the effects of this global pandemic. We exist in an ecosystem of partnerships and interconnected businesses, many of whom are feeling significant pain,” reads the memo sent out by Pichai as published by Bloomberg.
Google has not been able to proceed with the on-boarding of a large number of employees hired in the first quarter, while facing challenges in securing resources including laptops and security keys for them, Pichai had said in the memo.
Focus on ‘strategic areas’
The company will now be shifting its focus on “strategic areas” where users and businesses rely highly on Google, apart from implementing a few other cost-cutting plans. It will also be slowing down the pace of investments in areas such as “data centres and machines, and non-business essential marketing and travel.”
Alphabet had hired over 1 lakh employees in 2019 full-time. It also reported $23.5 billion in capital expenditures with a significant investment in data centres and computer servers, the report said.
Google is diverting a few of its resources in assisting authorities across the globe in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alphabet has committed over $800 million in grants, loans and ad credits to help small businesses and others affected by the pandemic.
While Google.org has committed $50 million and an additional $2,500 in matching contributions by each Google employee to help communities across the globe.
It has also recently launched a Journalism Relief Fund to help local news organizations worldwide during the pandemic under its Google News initiative.
Google is not the only tech giant facing such issues related to revenue and resource. Microsoft has recently made the decision to “temporarily pause” hiring in certain areas according to a report by Busines Insider.