Tech layoffs: 12,000 not enough, fire 1.5 lakh people, Google investor tells Sundar Pichai

The global tech sector is bleeding jobs with more than two lakh people losing jobs last year and 55,000 being fired in January 2023 alone. After resisting pressure on the industry caused by bringing too many people on board to meet pandemic demand, Google has also joined Meta, Amazon and Twitter by slashing 12,000 employees from its staff. As many speculate if Alphabet investor TCI fund's letter triggered the layoff, its owner Christopher Hohn wants CEO Sundar Pichai to sack more people.

The hedgefund manager and activist investor has called for 10 times more people to be fired from Google, to bring down costs. Hohn wants 1.5 lakh people to be laid off from Alphabet alone, to rightsize the organisation. Hohn had earlier written to the firm, complaining that the headcount at Google was too high and too much money was being spent on each employee.

In his latest letter, Hohn appreciated Pichai for moving ahead in the right direction by slashing the workforce by 12,000. While acknowledging that the decision is tough, he went on to recommend trimming the staff by 20 per cent. If Pichai goes ahead with this, Google will account for almost half of all workers sacked by more than 1,000 firms fo far.