According to media sources, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, became the latest technology company to declare intentions to decrease employment due to overhiring in recent years and worries of a recession on Friday.

This will be the greatest round of layoffs in the history of the technology corporation, affecting almost 6% of its workforce.

Rueters published further information regarding Alphabet’s move, stating that the technology sector is bleeding from layoffs as firms gamble on artificial intelligence (AI).

“Alphabet now faces a challenge from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) in a branch of tech that can, for instance, create virtually any content a user can think up and type in a text box.

Microsoft this week said recession worries were forcing it to shed 10,000 jobs, less than 5% of its workforce, and it would focus on imbuing its products with more AI going forward — a point Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai echoed in the memo.”

Friday, CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to staff regarding the layoffs, which was uploaded on the company’s blog with the subject line “A difficult decision to set us up for the future.”

Tyler Durden provided insight on the business email for Zerohedge.

“Following the news, Alphabet’s shares are up nearly 2% in premarket trading.

The cuts mark the latest high-profile layoffs from some of the biggest tech names. Days ago, rival Microsoft Corp said it would slash its headcount by 10,000 workers. Amazon, Meta, and others have also announced job cuts as macroeconomic headwinds continue to mount.”

Here is the entire email:

Googlers,

I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices.

This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. 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.

Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.

I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI. To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, we’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

To the Googlers who are leaving us: Thank you for working so hard to help people and businesses everywhere. Your contributions have been invaluable and we are grateful for them. CONTINUE READING…