Google Hiring After Layoffs
engineers to sales and marketing positions, to one opening for a Foodservices Supply Chain Manager at Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters.
The Internet search giant has acknowledged over-hiring in certain areas when it announced the 200 layoffs on Thursday. In January, Google said it would eliminate 100 full-time recruiters and it said the shuttering of its broadcast radio advertising business could result in 40 layoffs in February.
Google is an organisation of more than 20,000 people doing an incredibly diverse array of jobs, said spokesman Matt Furman.
“Overlapping organizations in one part of the company, doesn’t affect the limited need for more people in another part of the company,” he added.
He confirmed the job listings on Google’s website are currently open and said the openings were not inconsistent with Thursday’s layoffs.
Half of the roughly 360 job openings are in Google’s U.S. operations, while the rest are in far-flung locations, including Ireland and Australia.
Google’s headcount has swelled in recent years, reaching 20,222 employees at the end of 2008 compared with 10,674 at the end of 2006.
But the company has slowed hiring in recent quarters as new finance chief Patrick Pichette made controlling costs a bigger priority. In the fourth quarter, Google’s headcount grew less than 100 employees after jumping by between 400 and more than 2,000 employees per quarter during the past couple of years.
Part of the change may owe to the fact Google has sharply reduced its pace of acquiring outside companies.
And Google has also pulled the plug on certain projects that were not as successful as hoped, such as its decision to shutter initiatives to sell advertising on broadcast radio and in print media.
“I imagine they’re probably shifting resources in certain areas,” said Gabelli & Co analyst Robert Haley, who has a “Buy” rating on Google.
While the industry-wide slowdown in advertising spending is affecting all online Internet companies, including Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) and Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N) AOL, Haley said he expects Google’s revenue to continue to grow this year.
And as long as Google’s revenue growth outpaced its growth in operating expenses, Haley said he was not worried the continued hiring would work against preserving profit margins.
