Layoff season at Big Tech, what will the impact on India be?

While these job cuts will likely dampen campus recruitments and lateral hiring, as cost pressures mount, India is unlikely to see any ripple effect, analysts said.

Between 10 and 11 January, the US-based search-engine giant started its retrenchment process across teams that included privacy, safety and security (PSS), developer and corporate engineering in its ‘core’ division, Geo in its Knowledge and Information (K&I) division, Devices and Services Product Area (DSPA).

An internal email sent to the retrenched employees in Google’s Geo team within its K&I division, that includes products such as Google Maps, said,

‘We are making changes to deliver on our vision and strategic plans with greater velocity, which include some workforce reductions, closing many open roles, being selective on backfilling attrition, and reshaping of leadership roles. In most cases, we are consolidating roles or taking steps to flatten our organization structure and create clear ownership.’

Meanwhile, at Amazon, a note by Mike Hopkins, senior vice-president for Prime Video, sent to employees on 10 January, said, ‘We’ve identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas, while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact. As a result of these decisions, we will be eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.’

The retrenchments appear to have become an annual ritual at the end of the year now, after more than a year of large-scale hiring.

Last fiscal, Google laid off 12,000 employees, joining its Silicon Valley peer Meta, Facebook’s parent, which announced 11,000 job cuts.

Amazon and Microsoft had respectively cut down their workforce by 18,000 and 11,000 earlier. While last year’s global layoffs had a more pronounced impact on tech hiring in India, the impact of this year’s retrenchments is more subdued.

‘Companies that have large exposure to North America and European markets will see their new headcounts frozen in India, and those who are in the higher end of the compensation brackets will not even be considered for replacement hiring,’ according to experts at leading global consulting firms.

As high US interest rates are making access to funds difficult for smaller teams, companies and ventures, Big Tech is also likely impacted

While Big Tech looks to consolidate revenue has grown, slowing growth has meant cost-cutting is at the forefront of strategy.

Google and Amazon did not respond to queries on the impact of global layoffs on their India operations.

Recruiters, meanwhile, say the impact on India will be felt by their clients and subcontractors.