Olivia Cavallaro Tech 07.20.2022 21:Jul PM EDT

Google Internally Announces Temporary Hiring Freeze — How Long Will It Last?

Google Workers Hold Sit In To Protest Retaliation After Google Walkout Protest — MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - MAY 01: A Google Inc. employee wears a colorful hat on the Google campus as Google workers inside hold a sit-in to protest sexual harassment at the company, on May 1, 2019 in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Michael Short/Getty Images) Photo : Michael Short / Stringer

The big tech giant is hitting a pause on the process of adding more people to its workforce in the coming weeks.

In an internal email sent to Google employees this week, the multinational tech company announced a hiring freeze. Google's senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan sent the email to employees to announce the decision, which comes amidst news that Google will slow down hiring until the end of 2022.

"We'll use this time to review our headcount needs and align on a new set of prioritized Staffing Requests for the next three months," Raghavan wrote in the email to Google employees explaining the hiring freeze, as per The Verge. Google reassured employees, however, that the decision to uphold a hiring freeze will not affect existing job offers but that they will not be entertaining new job offers for applicants.

How Long Will Google's Hiring Freeze Last?

Google spokesperson Chris Pappas told the media outlet in a statement that while the company is "slowing hiring for the rest of the year," it is also "pausing most new offers for two weeks to enable teams to prioritize their roles and hiring plans for the rest of the year."

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives remarked that Google is following the trend of other Big Tech companies who are also slowing down hiring throughout the year as 2023 fast approaches. In fact, Microsoft on Wednesday said it was cutting many open job listings amidst the weakening economy in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. Microsoft Corp. said it is also eliminating jobs in its Azure cloud business and its security software unit.

Microsoft first disclosed the increase in hiring slowdown in May, which affected jobs in its Windows, Office, and Teams groups. In June, the Big Tech giant reported job cuts in its security business.

What Are Other Tech Companies Implementing a Hiring Freeze?

Google isn't the only tech company to implement a hiring freeze or slow down this year amidst fears of a recession brought about by the continued Russian invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. A separate Bloomberg report revealed that the San Francisco-based ride-hailing service Lyft is preparing to shut down its car-rental business and cut about 60 jobs.

Lyft's layoffs affect less than 2% of its average of 4,600 total employees within the rentals unit. The company decided to discontinue its first-party Rentals business to focus on its "best-in-class third party Rentals with Sixt and Hertz." Back in May, Lyft said it would also slow down hiring and decrease expenses in parts of the company affected by the decrease in technology stock decline this year.

Apple also joins Google, Microsoft, Lyft, and other tech companies in slowing down hiring in the coming months. While Apple has not publicly disclosed its plan to slow hiring, sources close to the matter said that the company's hiring slow down will not affect all teams as Apple is poised to launch a major product next year, including a mixed-reality headset, The Guardian reported.