Despite soaring profits, Google lays off more staff, including Python and Flutter engineers

[midian182]

What just happened? Google, whose parent Alphabet recently reported a 57% quarterly profit increase to $23.7 billion, has implemented yet another round of layoffs. The latest job cuts are mostly impacting the company's Python team, as well as engineers from the Flutter and Dart departments.

According to a Reddit post by Kevin Moore, a Google Product Manager for Flutter and Dart (via The Reg), "The layoffs were decided AT LEAST a couple of layers above our team and affected a LOT of teams. (I think I can say that.)"

"Lots of good folks got bad news and lots of great projects lost people. Flutter and Dart were not affected any more or less [than] others. It was a tough day... tough week."

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byu/fintechninja from discussion
inFlutterDev

Flutter, an open-source UI toolkit that allows developers to build cross-platform apps, was making big strides last year, but laying off members of the team has raised questions over whether it will join Google's very packed product graveyard.

The Python team, meanwhile, has also been reduced (aka, laid off). According to this Mastodon post, those being let go were first asked to onboard their replacements who will take on the same roles at a Munich-based team.

Alphabet laid off more employees than most tech giants last year, with more than 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, being cut. As with other companies, the reductions have continued into 2024; hundreds of employees in Google's voice assistant, hardware, and engineering teams were put out of work in January as the company looked to cut costs further and put more focus (and money) on artificial intelligence.

The latest reductions aren't a huge surprise. Just a week after the January layoffs, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned staff to brace for more cuts as it looked to meet ambitious goals and invest in big priorities in 2024, something that would require "tough choices," which is corpo-speak for firing people.

Most of the layoffs from early last year were the result of overhiring during the pandemic when companies increased their headcounts to cope with the increased demand for their services. While the continuing economic climate has contributed to the cuts this year, massive investments in AI is playing a big part in the job losses, as Google itself admits.

In a statement to The Reg, Google said, "we're responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead. To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities."

"Through this, we're simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and layers." That's referring to employees who still have a job, presumably.

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Despite soaring profits, Google lays off more staff, including Python and Flutter engineers

 

[The Talking Tech]

Whoever works for these tech companies I really hope they don't have kids depending on them.... because sooner than later they will find themselves wishing they went for a whole different career path.

 

[yRaz]

Whoever works for these tech companies I really hope they don't have kids depending on them.... because sooner than later they will find themselves wishing they went for a whole different career path.

There should be a law that makes it illegal for executives to get bonuses that year and dividends cannot be issued if they lay people off that year. If the company is in so much trouble that they have to destroy thousands of peoples lives then they shouldn't be giving money away.

 

[VitalyT]

This is real, folks, thousands are being replaced by AI. And it's getting worse every day.

The corporate rapacious scumbags will bring upon world-wide civil unrest and then collapse of the system, because we will let them.

 

[Watzupken]

This is real, folks, thousands are being replaced by AI. And it's getting worse every day.

The corporate rapacious scumbags will bring upon world-wide civil unrest and then collapse of the system, because we will let them.

I am not sure if it’s factual that AI is replacing humans, but ultimately, no companies can escape the fact that they need people to spend in order for them to earn revenue. With people out of jobs, spending will only decline. Unless AI will also replace humans as consumers of these products and services.

 

[techstrike]

Python devs? oh oh, we all know what they will turn.

 

[VitalyT]

I am not sure if it’s factual that AI is replacing humans, but ultimately, no companies can escape the fact that they need people to spend in order for them to earn revenue. With people out of jobs, spending will only decline. Unless AI will also replace humans as consumers of these products and services.

You are thinking in terms of eventuality, which companies never do, they only care about immediate gains and savings. Consequence is over the head for the bean counters.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

This is real, folks, thousands are being replaced by AI. And it's getting worse every day.

The corporate rapacious scumbags will bring upon world-wide civil unrest and then collapse of the system, because we will let them.

Or, you know, it's a megacorp doing what megacorps do, cutting departments that dont immediately make them money to prop up earnings to look good to investors. That thing they do all the time? Yeah they're doing it again.

The world isnt all doom and gloom. Hey, the coders could Learn To Weld instead!

 

[VitalyT]

... cutting departments that dont immediately make them money to prop up earnings to look good to investors.

Look at the article you're posting against:

Despite soaring profits, Google lays off more staff

They make tons of money, and they are cutting jobs because they want more, to boost their executive bonuses into the stratosphere! That Google CEO prick took home over 300mln in bonuses after cutting over 10,000 jobs.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Look at the article you're posting against:

They make tons of money, and they are cutting jobs because they want more, to boost their executive bonuses into the stratosphere! That Google CEO prick took home over 300mln in bonuses after cutting over 10,000 jobs.

Literally what I just said. They're propping up their quarterly profits by cutting positions so they look better. Lrn 2 reed.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I am not sure if it’s factual that AI is replacing humans, but ultimately, no companies can escape the fact that they need people to spend in order for them to earn revenue. With people out of jobs, spending will only decline. Unless AI will also replace humans as consumers of these products and services.

- Oh ye who lacks imagination! If workers can be replaced by AI and Robots... you think consumers can't be replaced by AI and Robots?

I like to pitch my Star Trek episode every once in a while here and there: Kirk and company stumble upon the ruins of an extinct ancient alien civilization that still has a "functioning" economy because they automated the workers and the consumers, the workers producing and servicing and the consumers buying and using for all eternity.

 

[brucek]

This is real, folks, thousands are being replaced by AI. And it's getting worse every day.

The corporate rapacious scumbags will bring upon world-wide civil unrest and then collapse of the system, because we will let them.

1. Nothing in this article suggested that any of those laid off had successfully been replaced by AI. In one specific example it talked about the work being moved to another location.

2. Even if some of them were, how much do you think Google is spending a year on AI-related projects? I have heard casual rumors it might be in the billions. Whatever the real number is, it's probably created a lot more net jobs, and probably higher-paying jobs, than these layoffs reduced.

3. In the real eventual long term, it is critical our economy is able to deploy people to do real, productive work vs. make-work. No one misses horse carriage drivers, telephone switchboard operators, or Blockbuster clerks. Humans have an inexhaustible appetite for goods & services, and can afford more of them as the economy gets more productive. Jobs, careers and industries that go away will be replaced with new ones. Making the transition less painful is an area we could maybe do better at though.

 

[subnex]

One big issue in the tech industry that I see is that companies rather hire new staff with the required skills than upskill existing staff and move these across departments

 

[Endymio]

There should be a law that makes it illegal for executives to get bonuses that year and dividends cannot be issued if they lay people off that year.

Or we could simply stick with that "freedom" thing we originally based the nation upon.

Google [makes' tons of money, and they are cutting jobs because they want more, to boost their executive bonuses

Did they just stop teaching macroeconomics entirely in schools? Google is cutting jobs because those jobs are unprofitable. An unprofitable position is one consuming more resources than it produces, meaning it is destroying value. Not just for the employer, but for the economy at large.

If you wish to see the end effects of your desired policies writ large, I suggest you look at the economies of the former USSR, in which workers labored at guaranteed jobs producing worthless products no one wished to buy, while the store shelves remained bare of basic necessities.

 

[yRaz]

Or we could simply stick with that "freedom" thing we originally based the nation upon.
.

Wow, that's so cool, you completely ignored the point I was trying to talk about so that you could increase the amount of money in your 401k from google ruining tens of thousands of families lives.

 

[jason lee]

There should be a law that makes it illegal for executives to get bonuses that year and dividends cannot be issued if they lay people off that year. If the company is in so much trouble that they have to destroy thousands of peoples lives then they shouldn't be giving money away.

No absolutely no. We have enough red tape and rules, regulations, permits, etc at every which corner you turn. Govt should not be telling business how to run unless it has to do with public safety health or the environment. If you don't like what Google is doing, don't apply to work for them and don't browse on their platform. The public decides. Simple as that.

 

[Endymio]

Wow, that's so cool, you completely ignored the point I was trying to talk about so that you could increase the amount of money in your 401k from google ruining tens of thousands of families lives.

Turn off the drama queen act. If an engineer is so utterly worthless that they can't find new employment in a 4% unemployment job market, then they need to find a new career regardless. Your dystopian vision of cradle-to-grave job security has been tried before, and it doesn't just hurt faceless corporations -- it destroys economic well-being for everyone.

And FYI: I own no stock in Google. As a US citizen, however, I "own stock" in the country at large.

 

[toooooot]

No absolutely no. We have enough red tape and rules, regulations, permits, etc at every which corner you turn. Govt should not be telling business how to run unless it has to do with public safety health or the environment. If you don't like what Google is doing, don't apply to work for them and don't browse on their platform. The public decides. Simple as that.

Large corps must be regulated or else they will destroy any competition and then crumble under their own stupidity and more importantly greed.
A balance is needed, always in between

 

[Shaitan]

There should be a law that makes it illegal for executives to get bonuses that year and dividends cannot be issued if they lay people off that year. If the company is in so much trouble that they have to destroy thousands of peoples lives then they shouldn't be giving money away.

Agree, but for FOUR years.
Let's see the CEO's fight for their bonuses while keeping people employed.

 

[Endymio]

Large corps must be regulated or else they will destroy any competition and then crumble under their own stupidity

Yet essentially all the situations in which corporations destroyed competition to the detriment of consumers have come from government regulating the competition out of business, from state-mandated utilities like cable companies, to the overwhelming regulatory load on the banking industry, which has driven essentially all small and regional banks out of existence, leaving a de facto oligopoly.

As one early example, when Standard Oil entered the market, they drove oil prices down from $8 barrel to $0.61 barrel. When the US government broke up this "evil monopoly", the world oil price rose drastically, and in fact took a full 20 years to return to levels close to what Rockefeller sold at.