Google Switzerland is cutting another 50 jobs in Zurich

According to a media report, all 43 recruitment sector jobs at Google Switzerland will be eliminated. There would also be 10 positions in the ‘Android TV teams’, as the portal ‘Inside Paradeplatz’ wrote this weekend. During the first round of layoffs, a reduction of 250 jobs had already been announced at the beginning of this year.

Since Google slowed the pace of hiring, the number of inquiries to those responsible for hiring has also decreased accordingly, Google told news agency AWP in response to a question. “To ensure that we can continue to organize our activities efficiently, we have made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our recruitment team,” a spokeswoman said, without giving exact figures.

The affected employees would be supported with a transition phase, outplacement services and severance pay. She would also be given the opportunity to look for a new job externally at Google.

The latest removals mark the temporary end of a growth phase for Google in the city of Limmat. According to the company’s own information, it currently employs almost 5,000 people. By comparison, there were only 2,000 employees at the beginning of 2017. Since then, Google has opened numerous new offices in Zurich. Recruiting, the department responsible for finding new employees, also grew along with it.

However, at the beginning of this year, Google announced a job reduction of 12,000 jobs worldwide, which at the time corresponded to about 6 percent of the workforce. Google is not alone in the technology industry when it comes to job losses. Almost all tech giants such as Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon have announced job cuts on a similar scale. The reasons given are the weakening economy and a greater emphasis on efficiency. (sda/awp)