Google job cuts hit 1,800 employees in California, including 27 massage therapists

Google eliminated over 1,800 jobs in its home state California as part of the biggest round of layoffs in company history.

On Friday, Alphabet-owned Google announced it was cutting 12,000 employees, roughly 6% of the full-time workforce. According to filings released by the state and viewed by CNBC, 1,845 positions, or 15% of the cuts, were in California.

Most of the headcount reduction in the state occurred in and around the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. Some 1,436 jobs were cut in Mountain View, where Google is based, while 119 were in San Bruno, home to YouTube. Palo Alto saw 53 cuts.

“Employee separations at the Facilities resulting from this action are expected to commence March 31, 2023,” read the filings, which were dated Jan. 20.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that the March date is due to a notification period required in California. WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) forces employers to give impacted employees as well as state and local representatives at least 60 days written advance notice “of any plant closing or mass layoff.”

Google’s initial announcement said the company would pay U.S. employees “during the full notification period (minimum 60 days).”

More than a quarter of the Bay Area roles affected had “director” or “senior” in the titles. The cuts also included 27 in-house massage therapists, with 24 in Mountain View and three in the Southern California markets of Los Angeles and Irvine.

In total, 177 cuts took place in L.A., mostly from the company’s Playa Vista campus. There were 60 cuts in Irvine.

Alphabet is reckoning with slowing growth and recession risks as the tech market adjusts to the end of an extended bull market. At a companywide meeting on Monday, CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the layoffs while taking questions from employees, who expressed concerns about the future.

“I understand you are worried about what comes next for your work,” Pichai said at the meeting. “Also very sad for the loss of some really good colleagues across the company.”

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