Google has laid off nearly a thousand employees from several areas since January 10. The revelation came in the form of an internal memo from CEO Sundar Pichai, who also warned employees to expect further cuts in the future, according to The Verge.

On Wednesday, Pichai addressed the whole Google workforce, announcing, "We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year." The CEO acknowledged the hurdles ahead, saying, "The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices."

These "tough choices" have already had an impact on numerous areas, including hardware, ad sales, trust and safety, shopping, maps, policy core engineering, and the YouTube teams. Pichai emphasized that, while significant, these layoffs and reorganizations do not compare to the 12,000 job cuts implemented by Google at the same time last year.

"These role eliminations are not at the scale of last year's reductions, and will not touch every team," Pichai stated in his memo. He acknowledged the emotional toll on staff, saying, "But I know it's very difficult to see colleagues and teams impacted."

Pichai provided insight into the company's logic, explaining that the layoffs this year are aimed at "removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas." However, he did not hesitate to confirm the suspicions of many within Google, adding that more "role eliminations" are on the way.

"Many of these changes are already announced, though to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted," he said.

Google joins many other technology businesses that have announced layoffs this month.

Notably, Amazon, one of Google's main competitors in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, announced layoffs in January. This includes a reduction of over 500 positions at Twitch, Amazon's popular live-streaming video network. Amazon has also made hundreds of personnel cuts across its Prime Video and MGM Studios businesses. According to Layoffs.fyi, a layoff tracking website, the computer industry has seen over 7,500 job layoffs in the first few months of 2024.