Alphabet’s Google continues to carry out waves of layoffs across its divisions, with a fresh tranche revealed this week.

According to CNBC, it has learned that Google on Tuesday has offered ‘buyouts’ to employees within its knowledge and information and central engineering units, as well as the marketing, research and communications teams.

‘Buyouts’ are effectively Google offering a voluntary exit program to its US-based staff. And it has been offering a number of such ‘buyouts’ to staff recently.

Ongoing layoffs

The latest ‘buyouts’ are to Google staff across a number of its divisions, including those within its knowledge and information and central engineering units, as well as marketing, research and communications teams, CNBC reported.

It noted that Google’s knowledge and information, or K&I, is a 20,000 strong unit that houses Google’s search, ads and commerce divisions.

CNBC could not confirm how many employees were impacted by the latest round of buyouts, but it comes after Google continues efforts to reduce headcount.

The “voluntary exit program” applies to US-based employees, and some teams are also mandating office returns for remote workers who live within 50 miles of an office, the company confirmed. They will be expected to assume a hybrid work schedule “in order to bring folks more together in-person.”

In April Google had notified remote workers at various units that their jobs would be in jeopardy if they don’t return to office for set number of days per week.

“Earlier this year, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance for US-based Googlers, and several more are now offering the program to support our important work ahead,” Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini wrote in an emailed statement to CNBC.

Excited to work

Google’s K&I underwent a reorganisation in October that resulted in Google executive Nick Fox taking over the helm, CNBC reported.

Fox reportedly sent out a memo on Tuesday saying that employees who are not meeting expectations may want to take the buyout and that those who are excited by their work and doing well to remain with the company.

“I want to be very clear: If you’re excited about your work, energized by the opportunity ahead, and performing well, I really (really!) hope you don’t take this!” Fox reportedly wrote.

“We have ambitious plans and tons to get done,” Fox wrote in the memo. “On the other hand, this VEP offers a supportive exit path for those of you who don’t feel aligned with our strategy, don’t feel energized by your work, or are having difficulty meeting the expectations of your role.”

Ongoing cuts

These layoffs come after Alphabet had in February disappointed investors when it revealed in its Q4 and year-end financials that cloud growth was stalling, coupled with a big capital-spending plan to accelerate its AI-investment strategy.

At the time Google’s finance chief Anat Ashkenazi stated that one of her top priorities would be to drive more cost-cutting as Google expands its spending on AI infrastructure in 2025.

In April 2025 it was reported that Google, after offering voluntary redundancy (aka buyout offers) in January, had laid off hundreds of employees in its ‘platforms and devices’ unit.

Prior to that in February, Google had offered staff in its ‘People Operations’ (aka Human Resources or HR) division so called ‘buyout’ offers. Days before that Google had made layoffs in its cloud division.

And these ongoing layoffs are causing an issue, especially as the company is still reporting impressive earnings.

Google senior management were questioned by staff during all-hands meeting last year, about cost cutting, layoffs and “morale” issues at the firm.

In May 2024 Google had laid off at least 200 employees from its “Core” organisation, which included key teams and engineering talent, with some of the roles being outsourced to Mexico and India.

But the biggest cuts came in January 2023, when Alphabet had cut 12,000 jobs worldwide, or roughly 6 percent of its workforce.

In June 2023 it also emerged that Google was axing staff in its popular mapping service Waze, which it had acquired for $1.3 billion back in 2013.

In September 2023 Google cut hundreds of jobs in its global recruiting team as part of a broader pullback in hiring.

In January 2024 CEO Sundar Pichai had warned staff to expect more job losses as the firm “will be investing in our big priorities.”