San Francisco, October 19: Google has slashed dozens of jobs in its news division amid slowed growth and uncertain economic conditions, the media reported. At least 40-45 workers in Google News have lost their jobs, according to an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson, CNBC reported late on Wednesday. “We’re deeply committed to a vibrant information ecosystem, and news is a part of that long-term investment,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

“We’ve made some internal changes to streamline our organisation. A small number of employees were impacted. We’re supporting everyone with a transition period, outplacement services and severance as they look for new opportunities at Google and beyond,” said the company. Google News division still employs hundreds of people. Google News presents links to articles from thousands of publishers and magazines. Microsoft Tests Support For Hearing Aids in Windows 11, Will Let Users To Take Calls, Listen To Music and Stream Audio From Their PCs.

“These are some of the best and brightest people I’ve ever worked with. We’re definitely worse off without them,” wrote a staff engineer at Google News on LinkedIn regarding the layoffs. In January, Google announced it was reducing 12,000 jobs, affecting around 6 per cent of the full-time workforce. Last month, the company eliminated hundreds of positions from its recruiting organisation.

The tech giant said in a statement that the “volume of requests for our recruiters has gone down”. Google, however, declined to reveal the exact number of people being asked to go from its recruiting workforce, reports Semafor. “In order to continue our important work to ensure we operate efficiently, we’ve made the hard decision to reduce the size of our recruiting team,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report. YouTube Update: Google-Owned Video Platform Announces New Ways To Enhance News Watching Experience and Support Journalist Creating Dynamic News Content.

“We’re supporting everyone impacted with a transition period, outplacement services, and severance as they look for new opportunities here at Google and beyond,” the spokesperson added. Google slowed down the pace of hiring last year amid the global economic slowdown.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 19, 2023 11:04 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).