Google Core employees are facing the long walk out of Google HQ as the company is laying people off. According to NBC4 New York, at least 200 Google Core employees are being let go. The Google Core team includes key Google teams and engineering employees.
We know that Google Search is the core of the business and so we assume that these Google Core employees were working on the core business. Google will replace these roles with the same roles, but with new employees based in India and Mexico.
Of course, the company won’t say this, but salaries are much lower in both India and Mexico and this is sure to be savings for Google’s payroll. What shocks many analysts is that Google announced its first-quarter earnings and they were what investors wanted to see.
The problem with Google’s first-quarter earnings, though, was it was announced before the March Core update, leading many to speculate, Google delayed the Core update announcement so as not to affect the earnings announcement. Because, you know, the March Core update is hot garbage and has killed numerous publishers. But I digress.
It is interesting that these Google Core employees are being let go now, considering the uptick in AI results and SGE (Search Generative Experience). Listen to my podcast below to learn more about how the AI Bros are coming for search.
At least 50 of the positions eliminated were in engineering at the company’s offices in Sunnyvale, California, filings show. Many Google Core teams will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.
Asim Husain, vice president of Google Developer Ecosystem, announced news of the layoffs to his team in an email last week. He also spoke at a town hall and told employees that this was the biggest planned reduction for his team this year, an internal document shows.
“We intend to maintain our current global footprint while also expanding in high-growth global workforce locations so that we can operate closer to our partners and developer communities,” Husain wrote in the email.
There are numerous things moving very fast right now and if you blink, you’re going to miss it. Google and OpenAI are looking to change the way search operates. But they’re also looking to change the information you see. 2024 will be an interesting year, especially with elections just around the corner.