Google Chief Explains Why The Company Will Slow Hiring In 2022-23

Google chief Sundar Pichai has reportedly informed employees that the tech giant will be “slowing down the pace of hiring for the rest of the year” amid an “uncertain global economic outlook”. This is according to an internal memo first reported on by Insider. 

Pichai said that Google won’t be freezing its hiring completely and will still focus on hiring for “critical roles”. However, Google plans to press pause on development in some cases and will re-deploy resources to higher priority areas.

“The uncertain global economic outlook has been top of mind. Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds,” Pichai said in the memo.

In the first quarter of the year, Google’s growth slowed to 23%, down from a 34% growth in the same period last year.

The tech giant is recruiting approximately 10,000 new employees in the second quarter, though Pichai said Google plans to slow hiring for the rest of the year and into 2023. 

“For the balance of 2022 and 2023, we’ll focus our hiring on engineering, technical and other critical roles, and make sure the great talent we do hire is aligned with our long-term priorities,” Pichai said.