According to a company statement and reports from several news outlets, Google has offered buyouts to staff in several divisions in a fresh round of cost cutting, the Associated Press reports.
It’s not clear how many employees are affected, but the offers were reportedly made to staff in Google’s search, advertising, research and engineering units.
“Earlier this year, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance for U.S.-based Googlers, and several more are now offering the program to support our important work ahead,” a Google spokesperson, Courtenay Mencini, said in a statement.
“A number of teams are also asking remote employees who live near an office to return to a hybrid work schedule in order to bring folks more together in-person,” Mencini said.
The tech company started trimming its headcount in 2023, when it announced that it was laying off 12,000 staff as the economic boom that fueled demand for online services during the COVID-19 pandemic started to fade.
