Tech giant Google lays off employees at Singapore office as part of global cuts

SINGAPORE — Google Singapore on Friday (Feb 17) confirmed that it has laid off an unspecified number of employees at its Singapore office, a day after the global technology giant's India office retrenched more than 450 staff members.  

In response to queries from TODAY, Google Singapore said that the firm is "unable to share the number of employees impacted in Singapore", but said that the workers are "part of the 12,000 roles affected globally as previously announced". 

Mr Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google and parent company Alphabet, said in a blogpost on Jan 20 that the tech giant had decided to reduce its global workforce by about 12,000 roles.

Employees in the United States were notified at that time, but for those in other countries, the process would take longer due to local laws and practices, he said then.  

Google Singapore added on Friday that Google will "support employees in line with local practices as they look for their next opportunity".

The layoffs by Google Singapore came after many international employees of the tech giant had taken to social media to criticise the abrupt and impersonal nature of their terminations.

For instance, some employees found out that they had lost their jobs after they were logged out of their corporate accounts, while others realised only when they could not gain access to their office.

Checks by TODAY on professional networking site LinkedIn showed that several laid-off and retained Google Singapore staff members had made mention of the retrenchment exercise. 

Those claiming to have been retrenched expressed sadness at the decision, while also seeking other job opportunities on the platform. One claimed that the number of layoffs in Singapore was 190 employees but TODAY has not been able to verify that figure.

The layoffs by Google followed a string of retrenchments in the technology sector in recent months. 

Late last year, Twitter employees in Singapore had been assured that there were no plans for layoffs, only to receive a blunt email later about job cuts and finding themselves locked out of company systems within hours.

Other tech firms such as Shopee and Meta had also announced retrenchment exercises last year. 

The Ministry of Manpower said last November that 1,270 workers were laid off in the Singapore tech sector between July and November last year.