Big Tech

Google to lay off small number of staff in State

Number of jobs affected is understood to be below the threshold for informing the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment

Google still employs more than 5,000 people directly in Ireland. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

Ciara O'Brien
Tue Jan 16 2024 - 17:35

Google is set to lay off a number of staff in the State as part of a global restructuring of its ads business that will see hundreds of jobs go.

The number of Irish jobs affected is understood to be less than 30, below the threshold for informing the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment. Affected staff may also be deployed to other roles within the organisation, which may further reduce the final toll.

Google said the lay-offs in the advertising division were part of a regular restructuring of its business.

“Every year we go through a rigorous process to structure our team to provide the best service to our ads customers. We map customers to the right specialist teams and sales channels to meet their service needs,” Google said in a statement. “As part of this, a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated, and impacted employees will be able to apply for open roles on the team or elsewhere at Google.”

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Google still employs more than 5,000 people directly in Ireland.

The latest job losses come after parent company Alphabet last week laid off about 1,000 employees across multiple divisions, including in its voice assistant unit and team responsible for Pixel and Fitbit.

Google last year cut thousands of jobs globally as the company trimmed costs amid a general downturn in the tech sector. It was among a number of tech giants which had grown aggressively during the pandemic before shedding a significant number of jobs as the growth was not sustained.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist

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