Google parent Alphabet announced it will eliminate approximately 12,000 jobs, around 6 per cent of its global workforce, as it joined the ranks of high-profile technology companies which have recently culled their workforces.

Sundar Pichai (pictured), CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet detailed the lay offs in a blog today (20 January).

“This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

He noted the company had experienced periods of dramatic growth over the past two years but “we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today”.

Affected US-based employees will be paid for a minimum of 60 days and will receive their 2022 bonuses and remaining holiday time.

The company lined up a severance package equivalent to 16-week’s pay plus two additional weeks for each year they were employed, six months of healthcare, immigration support and job placement services.

Pichai touted Google’s early embrace of AI and teased the company was getting ready to share “some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses”.

In a regulatory filing issued in September 2022, Alphabet revealed it employed 186,779 people compared with 156,500 at the end of 2021.

During its Q3 2022 earnings call, CFO Ruth Porat revealed it had hired a little more than 12,000 staff during the period.