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Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, plans to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide in its latest round of layoffs, CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a memo initially sent to employees that was later shared publicly online as a company blog post.
"This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with," Pichai said. "I'm deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here."
The job cuts will account for more than 6% of the company's workforce, according to Reuters. Pichai didn't specify which teams would specifically be affected, however, the layoffs are anticipated to include workers in the United States and internationally.
Alphabet's announcement is the latest among sweeping layoffs in the technology industry, following Microsoft's announcement to cut 10,000 jobs and Amazon's decision to cut 18,000 jobs, which was significantly more than initially anticipated. Pichai claimed the changing "economic reality" was the deciding factor in the company's decision.
"Over the past two years weâve seen periods of dramatic growth," Pichai said. "To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."