Google cuts 1,000 jobs, as reported by the union.

Major tech firms, including Amazon and Meta, reduce workforce due to sluggish business forecasts in the previous year.

As part of cost-cutting efforts, Google has downsized its hardware, voice-assistance, and engineering teams by laying off a thousand employees, as reported by the Alphabet Workers Union.

The downsizing aligns with Google’s commitment to “prudently investing in our company’s primary objectives and the considerable opportunities that lie ahead,” according to the company’s statement.

“Some teams are currently undergoing organizational changes, including role eliminations on a global scale,” the company stated.

Initially, Google announced the elimination of a few hundred roles within engineering, hardware, and the Assistant teams, with a significant impact on the augmented reality hardware division. The following day, the Alphabet Workers Union estimated the figure to be 1,000 workers. These layoffs align with the executives’ commitment at Google and its parent company, Alphabet, to cut costs. A year ago, Google disclosed plans to lay off 12,000 employees, constituting about 6% of its workforce.

On the same day news of the workforce reductions emerged, Google declared the deprecation of 17 “underutilized” features of Google Assistant. These included functionalities like playing audiobooks, sending emails, or initiating a meditation session with Calm through voice commands.

The Alphabet Workers Union characterized the job cuts as “another round of needless layoffs” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The union expressed dissatisfaction, stating, “Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and the company cannot continue to fire our coworkers while making billions every quarter. We won’t stop fighting until our jobs are safe!”

While Google saw significant growth in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has had to revise its business predictions due to a slowdown in expansion over the past year. Google is not alone in facing these challenges, as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has cut over 20,000 jobs. In December, Spotify also announced a 17% reduction in its global workforce, marking the music streaming service’s third round of layoffs in 2023 as part of efforts to cut costs and enhance profitability.

Earlier this week, Amazon implemented workforce reductions, letting go of hundreds of employees from its Prime Video and studios units. Additionally, around 500 employees engaged in its live-streaming platform Twitch are slated for layoffs. Amazon’s actions follow a trend of cutting thousands of jobs post a pandemic-induced hiring surge. In March, the company unveiled plans to lay off 9,000 employees, adding to the 18,000 employees targeted for layoffs in January 2023.

Google is currently engaged in a intense competition with Microsoft, both vying for leadership in the artificial intelligence sector. Microsoft, the office software giant, has intensified its artificial intelligence offerings to compete with Google. In September, Microsoft introduced the Copilot feature, integrating artificial intelligence into products like its search engine Bing, browser Edge, and Windows for its corporate clientele.