There are a lot of things happening around the world that have been indicating that the global economy is in a downturn. While this began with very subtle hints in the beginning, now the measures that huge companies are taking shout ‘the economy is in trouble’.
On Tuesday, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai shared an internal memo among employees which said that the company is going to slow down its hiring process for the rest of the year. The memo, obtained by The Verge said, “The uncertain global economic outlook has been top of mind. Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds.”
“The uncertain global economic outlook has been top of mind. Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds.”
Although the company will not completely stop its hiring process, it’ll focus on hiring people for engineer, technical, and other critical roles. The CEO also mentioned that Google has already welcomed around 10,000 working professionals in Q2 and because of this progress it has achieved so far, they have decided to slow the hiring pace.
Looking at the future, Mr. Pichai added, “Moving forward, we need to be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days. In some cases, that means consolidating where investments overlap and streamlining processes. In other cases, that means pausing development and re-deploying resources to higher priority areas.”
Google stocks are down 21% this year and the CFO of the company, Ruth Porat had previously warned that times may get challenging for the company. Google’s Parent Company Alphabet, had fallen short of analysts’ expectations in Q1 2022 and also reported slowed-down revenue growth in the European region because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.
“Moving forward, we need to be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days.”
Google isn’t the only company that is slowing down its hiring efforts. Recently, Meta also warned its employees to prepare for a serious time in the second half of 2022. Meta had already implemented a hiring freeze among certain teams. Among other companies, Uber, Snap, and Spotify have also announced plans to slow down their hiring process. Many companies have also resorted to laying off employees.
Tech stocks have definitely taken a plunge and many fear this may just be the beginning of the efforts to mitigate the effect of the current economic situation. Google’s CEO ended the memo with a hopeful message, “I’m excited for us to rise to the moment again.”
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