Google layoff rumors are true, but numbers are sketchy

By Source Seeker on Thu, 01/08/09 - 9:18am.

The bad economy is hitting every company, and Google is no exception. It's seen its stock price fall from a high of more than $700 per share in October 2007 to just $322.01 per share yesterday. And not only did it forgo its traditional $1,000 holiday cash bonus (employees settled for a G1 phone instead), but it's also cut back on employee perks like free meals. And now, the AP reports, Google has indeed layed off a sizable chunk of its contract workforce.

In a Dec. 15 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google says it now employs just 4,300 interns, temporary workers and contractors. But in October, Google founder Sergey Brin said the company's contract workers numbered 10,000. The discrepancy has led many to say that Google cut nearly 6,000 contract workers between October and December. Still, Google says that math is misleading.

While she declined to provide an actual layoff figure, Google spokeswoman Jane Penner said the 4,300 temp workers mentioned in the filing are actually just a "subset" of the 10,000 contractors Brin cited in October, "so it would be incorrect to conclude the difference between the two figures reflects the total number of people cut by Google." Brin's figure included all people employed outside Google for everything from gardening services to tech support, while the 4,300 figure was more narrowly defined.

But no matter how you slice it, Google has indeed made big cuts and laid off some number of workers. And Google's approach to the news fits right in with BuzzBlog's list of layoff euphemisms: Google hasn't had "layoffs"; it's just reduced a percentage of a subset of workers technically employed outside of Google.

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