Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai informed employees that the company will slow down hiring for the remainder of the year due to global macroeconomic conditions.
An internal memo sent by the CEO to employees reportedly states the company needs to "be more entrepreneurial" and work with "greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we've shown on sunnier days".
The company isn’t freezing hiring entirely; it will still hire for "engineering, technical and other essential skills" which will be the focus of recruitment in 2022 and 2023, Pichai added in the memo, according to reports.
Google's parent company, Alphabet, had approximately 164,000 employees as of March 31, and has hired recently for Google's cloud business and hardware.
Pichai said Google hired 10,000 new employees in the second quarter and has "strong pledges" to continue doing so in the coming months.
The chief also indicated the company will redeploy resources to higher priority areas and pause ongoing projects during this period.
Google is following other tech and IT firms in slowing recruitment, with Microsoft earlier this week announcing it would be eliminating a few positions, while Facebook owner Meta Platforms warned workers to prepare for a deep economic downturn as it slowed hiring at the start of July.
Snap and Lyft have announced they will suspend recruiting in May.
Through its latter-day history, Google has largely been able to shrug off economic downturns in the technology industry.
In the wake of the financial crisis more than ten years ago, the internet giant stopped recruiting, but it has since hired waves of new workers for its advertising business and industries like cellphones, self-driving vehicles, and wearable technology.