Google cuts 200 ‘core’ team members, moves jobs to India and Mexico: Report

PTC News Desk: Google, one of the tech industry’s titans, has made headlines with reports of significant layoffs affecting its ‘core’ team. Approximately 200 employees found themselves without jobs as Google initiates plans to redistribute certain roles to India and Mexico. The timing of these dismissals is particularly notable, as they precede Google’s eagerly anticipated first-quarter earnings report.

According to CNBC, the layoffs coincide with Google’s strategic decision to transfer specific functions to locations in India and Mexico. This organizational shift underscores the company’s ongoing efforts to optimize its global workforce. Just days earlier, Google made waves within its developer community by terminating staff from its Flutter, Dart, and Python teams, a move that occurred shortly before its annual developer conference.

Reports suggest that a substantial portion of the affected positions, around 50, were in engineering and were primarily based at Google’s offices in Sunnyvale, California. Asim Husain, the vice president of Google Developer Ecosystem, reportedly communicated news of the layoffs to his team via email and during a town hall meeting. Husain acknowledged that this reduction marked the most significant planned downsizing for his team in the current year.

In an email obtained by CNBC, Husain outlined Google’s intention to preserve its existing global presence while simultaneously expanding into burgeoning workforce hubs worldwide. This strategic approach aims to foster closer collaboration with partners and developer communities across the globe.

Google’s ‘core’ team, as described on the company’s website, serves as the bedrock for its flagship products, spearheading the development of foundational technical elements, developer platforms, product components, and infrastructure.

This move by Google echoes a broader trend in the tech industry. Earlier this year, Reuters reported on Tesla’s plans to lay off over 6,000 employees in Texas and California, citing a need to address waning demand and shrinking profit margins. The decision came amid mounting challenges for the electric vehicle manufacturer, including a dip in quarterly profits and heightened competition within the market.

As these developments unfold, they underscore the dynamic nature of the tech sector and the strategic recalibrations undertaken by industry leaders to navigate shifting market landscapes and maintain competitiveness.