Just 11 days into the New Year, Google and Twitch announced a raft of job cuts impacting thousands of its employees.

In a move mirroring industry turbulence witnessed in the challenging landscape of last year, the technology giants join the likes of Meta, and Amazon who laid off hundreds of employees last year.

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Google

The technology giant has announced it is laying off hundreds of people working on its hardware, voice-assistance and engineering teams.

In a statement, Google said the cost-cutting measure comes as it responsibly invests in the company’s “biggest priorities” and “significant opportunities ahead”.

It said: “Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organisational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”

However, in a post on X, the Alphabet Workers Union branded the set of job cuts as “another round of needless layoffs.”

The union wrote. “Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and the company cannot continue to fire our coworkers while making billions every quarter,” 

“We won’t stop fighting until our jobs are safe!”

The move follows Google’s announcement of job cuts impacting 6% of its workforce last year, equating in 12,000 people.

Twitch

Like Google, video streaming platform Twitch also announced this week it was cutting 500 jobs.

The CEO of the Amazon-owned platform, Dan Clancy, confirmed the layoffs in a blog post on the company’s website.

He noted: “Today I have some incredibly difficult news to share. As you all know, we have worked hard over the last year to run our business as sustainably as possible.

“Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch.

“This will be a very hard day. Our service exists to empower communities to create, together, and every single one of you has played a vital role in fostering our community and furthering that mission.”

Last year, the streaming platform cut 400 roles last year as part of larger layoffs at parent company Amazon that saw 18,000 people lose their jobs.

The news comes as earlier this week, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, scaled back on its global offices footprint by shutting the doors to its London West End headquarters.

Despite the office closure, Meta revealed that there would not be any reduction in the UK staff figures.