Google has introduced another series of job cuts that are hitting its worldwide recruiting division. The latest move comes nine months after the tech firm implemented deep job cuts equating to about six percent of its 12,000-person workforce in January last year.

Google representative Courtenay Mencini said, "We will continue to invest in top engineering and technical talent while also meaningfully slowing the pace of our overall hiring. To ensure we operate efficiently, we have made the hard decision to reduce the size of our recruiting team." This is in line with what Google CEO Sundar Pichai said earlier in a July earnings call when he spoke about moderating expense growth and hiring as it earmarks high-priority areas like artificial intelligence.

And Google, both as its own corporate entity and as an arm of its parent company, Alphabet, has been cutting costs all year. Food, fitness, massage, and transportation programs, to name a few, were among the employee perks cut. Still, critics noted that Pichai remains America's highest-paid CEO, at $226 million last year.

The layoffs surprised those who were laid off. Many criticized the sudden meeting announcements and the emotional move that they took. One user on LinkedIn wrote: "I had hoped I would somehow, for some reason, still be safe. Alas, that did not happen today."

This is just the latest in a wave of cuts that’s sweeping through the tech sector, which has experienced staggering losses among white-collar workers. Earlier this year, Roku, T-Mobile, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Amazon all announced layoffs or job cuts amid shifting demand still felt deeply from the pandemic.

Google is also being taken to task on other fronts. In Washington, D.C., the company is sitting in court on charges brought by the Justice Department and several states that allege antitrust violations in a case that could be seminal for the internet age.