Google follows job cuts with new appointments

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 30 Mar 2009 at 08:59

Google is set to fill 360 new jobs, even after it announced plans to lay off almost 200 sales and marketing employees in its third round of job cuts this year.

The openings listed on Google's website range from software engineers to sales and marketing positions, to one opening for a "Foodservices Supply Chain Manager" at Google's Mountain View headquarters.

"Overlapping organisations in one part of the company, doesn't affect the limited need for more people in another part of the company," notes Google spokesman Matt Furman.

He confirmed the job listings on Google's website are currently open and denies the openings are inconsistent with Thursday's layoffs.

Google's headcount has swelled in recent years, reaching 20,222 employees at the end of 2008 compared with 10,674 at the end of 2006.

But the company has slowed hiring in recent quarters as new finance chief Patrick Pichette made controlling costs a bigger priority. In the fourth quarter, Google's headcount grew less than 100 employees after jumping by between 400 and more than 2,000 employees per quarter during the past couple of years.

Part of the change may owe to the fact Google has sharply reduced its pace of acquiring outside companies.

And Google has also pulled the plug on certain projects that were not as successful as hoped, such as its decision to shutter initiatives to sell advertising on broadcast radio and in print media.

The search giant has acknowledged over-hiring in certain areas when it announced the 200 layoffs.

In January, Google said it would eliminate 100 full-time recruiters and that the shuttering of its broadcast radio advertising business could result in 40 layoffs in February.