Google isn’t immune to the economic downturn and is scaling back. The search giant will reassign 70 of its engineering positions and scale back its recruiting efforts by cutting 100 positions, it announced Wednesday.
Google said it is consolidating engineers from Texas, Norway and Sweden.
“Our long-term goal is not to trim the number of people we have working on engineering projects or reduce our global presence, but create a smaller number of more effective engineering sites, which will ensure that innovation and speed remain at our core,” said Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research at Google.
“All of the engineers are being offered jobs at other locations,” according to Eileen Rodriguez, a Google spokesperson. “We are planning to close all three locations and relocate the engineers to other Google offices.”
Still, Eustace admits in his post that it recognizes “the upheaval and heartache” that the changes will have on Google families and that they may not be able to keep all 70 employees.
This isn’t the first time the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has reassigned its engineers. In September, Google moved engineers from its Phoenix, Ariz., office to other locations. Google currently has engineers in 40 offices in more than 20 countries, according to the company.
Anticipating a continued downturn in the market, Google started making significant cuts, including releasing temporary employees, according to SEC filings attained by the Associated Press. It wasn’t clear, however, how many of its reported 4,300 interns, temp workers, and contractors were dropped.
Google is hiring at a lower rate than initially expected, the company said in its quarterly earnings announcement in October.
On Wednesday, Google said it is cutting 100 positions in recruiting. The move suggests it expects the economy to get worse with no quick economic relief in sight, especially after a year…