Late Wednesday, Google laid off over 1,000 engineers and service workers.
Voice-activated The knowledge and information product team restructure has an impact on Google Assistant and the Devices and Services PA (DSPA) team, which is in charge of Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit hardware.
On September 30, 2023, the corporation had 182,000 workers, but it downplayed the news, saying the job layoffs were part of organizational reforms.
To prepare for these possibilities, some of our teams made adjustments in the second half of 2023 to improve efficiency, work better, and match resources with their top product goals. Some teams are continuing to implement organizational adjustments, including position eliminations internationally, a Google representative said.
The Alphabet Worker Union stated on X that the layoffs were “needless” and that the corporation cannot “continue to fire our coworkers” despite generating billions.
According to 9to5Google, Google has fired most of its AR hardware team and will partner with other OEMs. The source also said that Google would have one core hardware engineering team instead of Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest teams.
Fitbit also told Eltrys that co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are departing due to this restructure.
Park helped Google launch its Pixel Watch wearables.
Google will buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion in 2019. The acquisition closed in 2021 after two years of regulatory clearance. Since then, Fitbit items have been integrated into Google’s. Google began urging Fitbit users to switch to Google accounts last year.
Semafor alleged that Google Assistant employees were also laid off. Last year, Google added AI-powered functionality to Assistant via Bard to take it “beyond voice.” Google said at the Pixel launch in October that Assistant could search Gmail and Drive for email and file requests.
Google launched its Waze mapping service in June, recruitment staff in September, and news section in October last year. Google let off 12,000 workers, or 6% of the workforce, in January 2023.
