More Mass Layoff Demands, Google Employee Growth 2013-2022

TCI Fund Management Limited, a shareholder of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, stated that the tech giant's expenditure on personnel is excessively high. TCI urged Alphabet to implement cost-cutting measures or further large-scale layoffs (PHK).

Previously, Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai, had decided to lay off 12,000 employees on Friday, January 20th. However, investors considered this number insufficient.

Christopher Hohn, founder of TCI Fund Management, pointed out that Alphabet had added over 100,000 employees in the past five years, with 30,000 of those added in just nine months.

Therefore, Hohn deemed Alphabet's decision to cut 12,000 jobs a step in the right direction. However, he believes this measure is insufficient to reverse the strong employee growth in 2022.

"I believe management should reduce the workforce to approximately 150,000, the level at the end of 2021. This would require a total reduction of approximately 20% of the workforce," Hohn wrote in his letter to Sundar Pichai on Friday, January 20th.

Hohn explained that the average Alphabet employee salary in 2021 was close to US$300,000, with some earning significantly more.

Hohn even assessed that competition for talent in the digital world has significantly decreased, making it possible to reduce employee compensation.

In a previous letter dated November 15, 2022, the British billionaire presented data on employee growth over the past 10 years. Hohn noted a significant increase in the number of employees since 2017. The following data shows Alphabet's employee count:

2013: 47,756 employees
2014: 53,600 employees
2015: 61,814 employees
2016: 72,053 employees
2017: 80,110 employees
2018: 98,711 employees
2019: 118,899 employees
2020: 135,301 employees
2021: 156,500 employees
Q3 2022: 186,779 employees