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Google has joined the growing A-list of IT giants making contract staff feel the pinch of belt-tightening so executives can put off similar pain for full-timers. The search giant will continue its internal plan to reduce its 10,000-strong freelance workforce, which includes data centre IT staff, programmers and developers. A company spokesperson hinted to CUK that scaling back freelance hires was nothing new, given Google has been reducing its reliance on contractors for over a year. Yet Google said it was “realistic about the poor state of the global economy” just a few weeks ago, and added it would “continue to manage Google for the long term.” Co-founder Sergey Brin fuelled fears of a staff squeeze, as implied by chief executive Eric Schmidt in a market update, by admitting Google was awash with contractors. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, he said there was a “really high” number on the books and vowed to reduce it, partly by converting them to employees. Google declined to identify which contractors would be targeted, but the reduction is likely to include non-IT roles, to cut a cost base that, in the third quarter, hit $3.9bn. And while these costs are against a backdrop of robust earnings, as revenues climbed in its major regions, Google, not unlike other businesses, won’t sniff at the savings. In terms of revenues, quarter-on-quarter growth for its UK business declined 2%, and no growth has been reported since the second quarter of this year. Coupled with the sober tone of the update, headlines about contractors being reduced pleased the markets, and Google’s shares jumped 9.5% by the close on Tuesday. But adding to evidence that the giant is not immune to gloom, Google ended trading flat yesterday after comScore predicted online retail sales for Christmas will plateau. Asked yesterday whether IT contractors should rule out a job with Google in 2009, a company spokesperson responded: “Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate.” Nov 27, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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