Google offers buyouts to staff in latest round of cost cutting

Google has offered buyouts to staff in several divisions in a fresh round of cost cutting, according to reports from several news outlets.

It’s not clear how many employees are affected, but the offers were made to staff in Google’s search, advertising, research and engineering units, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance for US-based Googlers, and several more are now offering the program to support our important work ahead,” the company said in a statement to the newspaper.

The tech company started trimming its headcount in 2023, when it announced that it was laying off 12,000 staff as the economic boom that fueled demand for online services during the COVID-19 pandemic started to fade.