Alphabet Inc's Google will slow hiring for the rest of the year, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told the company's staff in a memo on Wednesday. This has been the most drastic action by the web search giant since the Covid-19 pandemic began battering its advertising business several weeks ago.

In the mail, Pichai told the staff about various other cost-cutting measures, and said that the company will be “recalibrating the focus and pace of our investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non business essential marketing and travel,” Bloomberg reported.

“The entire global economy is hurting, and Google and Alphabet are not immune to the effects of this global pandemic,” Pichai wrote. “We exist in an ecosystem of partnerships and interconnected businesses, many of whom are feeling significant pain.”

"We'll be slowing down the pace of hiring, while maintaining momentum in a small number of strategic areas, and onboarding the many people who've been hired but haven't started yet", a Google spokesperson said.