Google Job Cuts Hit Real Estate Division As Tech Giant Rolls Out Round 2 Of Layoffs

Google will eliminate positions within its U.S. real estate department, part of a second round of layoffs since January 2023 as the tech giant continues to cut costs and redirect funding.

The Alphabet-owned firm will cut an unspecified number of positions in its real estate division as well as parts of its finance department, according to Business Insider. The finance teams affected include the firm’s treasury, business services and revenue cash operations. The real estate teams affected weren't disclosed.

“As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider. “To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities.”

Employees can apply to other positions and teams, the spokesperson said. Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat informed employees via email that the restructuring will help expand some operations in cities like Bengaluru, India, Mexico City and Dublin, according to an internal company memo. 

Job cuts come as Google has also made plans for more investment into artificial intelligence.

“We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year. The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices,” CEO Sundar Pichai told Google employees in an internal memo sourced by The Verge. “These role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions and will not touch every team.”

The California-based firm cut about 12,000 jobs in January 2023, the largest layoff in company history. Since then, it has paid hundreds of millions in impairment charges to break leases around the world.

Last year, the firm paid $2.1B in severance and other charges related to reducing its workforce, year-end company filings show. 

Alphabet employed about 182,500 people by the end of 2023, according to company filings, down from more than 190,230 in 2022.