India insulated from Big Tech layoffs, but hiring may freeze

Google has laid off over 700 employees, while Amazon is eliminating 'several hundred roles'

- Shouvik Das & Devina Sengupta

Global technology giants such as Google and Amazon that had hired in big numbers in response to IT demand fuelled by the pandemic have yet again unleashed a wave of retrenchments.

However, any ripple effect of these global layoffs is likely to be minimal in India. Yet, these employee cuts will likely dampen lateral and campus recruitments, as well as constrain rewards for employees as cost pressures mount, analysts said.

In the beginning of the year, hundreds of employees at Google and Amazon were laid off globally, but their India units have remained unscathed so far. In a note on an internal platform accessible to Google's employees, a copy of which was seen by Mint, the company disclosed that over 700 employees were laid off in the US, as well as a handful of others across Australia, Canada, China, and Switzerland. There was no mention of any layoff from within Google's India teams. At least two executives at Google told Mint on the condition of anonymity that the company has not issued any intimation of a potential downsizing of teams in India, for now.

"There might not be any significant direct impact on India-a lot of tech jobs remain in freeze in India already, and even if there are no direct impact of Google or Amazon's layoffs in India, it may affect teams here if a certain team is targeted to be slashed," said Akshara Bassi, senior research analyst at research firm Counterpoint.