Since April, Alphabet ($GOOG), parent of Google, has cut the number of job listings on its careers site by 49%. As of this week, the company lists 2,160 openings, down from 4,270 in April. The 2,160 openings currently listed is the lowest number of openings for which the company has been recruiting in at least three years.
Big tech hiring has slowed across the board for all the obvious reasons: offices remain closed, people aren't moving around, and it's difficult to measure the potential success of candidates via telepresence interviews. Microsoft has cut hiring by even more — 60% since March — and other FAANG giants like Netflix and Apple have both slowed their recruitment efforts.
In April, Google began cutting its marketing budget by as much as half, according to documents viewed by CNBC. Internal emails at Google also mentioned hiring freezes, saying "There are budget cuts and hiring freezes happening across marketing and across Google.”
Of the 2,160 openings on June 9 at Alphabet, the vast majority are for the wider Google business unit.
|
Brand |
Openings |
|---|---|
|
|
2,094 |
|
YouTube |
43 |
|
Systems (78I) |
15 |
|
Product (78L) |
14 |
|
Google Fiber |
11 |
|
Behavior (7LU) |
8 |
|
Infrastructure (7LV) |
7 |
|
Ops General Program Management (78M) |
7 |
|
Safety (7GB) |
6 |
|
Supply Chain and Manufacturing (78J) |
6 |
Interestingly, the job listings are slated for Google's locations around the globe, and not singly focused on the company's Sunnyvale headquarters.
|
Location Text |
Openings |
|---|---|
|
Sunnyvale, CA, USA |
273 |
|
Mountain View, CA, USA |
205 |
|
New York, NY, USA |
129 |
|
San Francisco, CA, USA |
118 |
|
Mountain View, California, United States |
115 |
|
Dublin, Ireland |
89 |
|
Seattle, WA, USA |
72 |
|
London, UK |
58 |
|
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
55 |
|
Tokyo, Japan |
52 |
Indeed, a large number are to be located in Silicon Valley at Alphabet's Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and San Francisco facilities, but New York, Dublin, Seattle, Tokyo, and London appear to be in fairly active recruiting phases.
The nearly halved hiring slowdown comes as Google reportedly began rescinding offers to thousands of contract workers.
“We’re slowing our pace of hiring and investment, and are not bringing on as many new starters as we had planned at the beginning of the year,” Google said in an email.
It is estimated that Google employs nearly 120,000 people full-time, along with tens of thousands of contractors.
So far, the company hasn't been letting people go, and the number of LinkedIn users that list Google as their employer continues to grow. At last count, more than 200,000 LinkedIn profiles include Google as an employer.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
