Google, Amazon, Meta Axing Total of 2,000+ Workers in NYC

Some workers at Google won’t be able to enjoy the largest rooftop park in the city, which Google opened on a site overlooking the Hudson River less than a year ago.

Instead, the ax man cometh for the once high flying tech companies.

New York City, which is already reeling from an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average, in the next few weeks will be absorbing cuts from the one time job producing tech titans of Google, Amazon and Meta.

The three tech titans, which over the past several months have announced they are reducing their head count by a combined 41,000 workers nationally are also slicing deeply their New York offices.. Just over 5 percent, or 2,057 employees are facing the ax from the Big Three in Manhattan in the coming weeks according to WARN (Workers Adjustment & Retraining Act) notices filed with the New York State Department of Labor.

Google, whose parent company is Alphabet, is going to have deepest cuts of the tech giants here, laying off 887 people locally by April 28th, according to a notice filed with the NYS Department of Labor in mid January. The NYC cuts amount to 7.4 percent of the 12,000 it plans to cut nationally. The local cuts will hit 345 people at 76 Ninth Ave. and another 181 across the street at 75 Ninth Ave. Another 171 will wave goodbye at 85 Tenth Ave. offices. And on two Hudson Street sites, 96 people will be laid off at #345 Hudson and another 56 at #315 Hudosn. Only 32 will be axed at West 15th St. office. The notice was posted on Jan. 20 and many were laid off immediately, although they remain on the payroll until April 28 to comply with state labor law.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees at a town hall meeting on Jan. 24 that the 12,000 people being laid off nationally are because the company hired too many people during the 2021 pandemic-induced boom times, and now must retrench. The 41 percent revenue growth in 2021 was not sustained last year. He was sharply criticized by employees because so many of those being cut had their internal communications cut without warning. But he did say top executives would see sharp cuts in their bonuses. Nationally, 6 percent of its workforce is being cut but the cuts in New York City are deeper, with 7.4 of its workforce here feeling the ax.

Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-helmed company formerly known as Facebook, said in November that it was cutting 11,000 workers nationally.

Locally 871 people working for Meta will lose their jobs starting next week, according the WARN noticed filed back on November 9 when the cuts were first announced. The bulk of the laid off will come from its NYC HQ at 770 Broadway which is laying off 522 workers while another 306 will be pink slipped at 372 Ninth Ave. and 43 will get their walking papers at 225 Park Ave. South offices. .

Amazon, whose CEO Andy Jassy announced it was slashing 18,000 jobs, said the payroll ballooned to 1.6 million employees during the pandemic boom compared to just 798,000 at the end of the fourth quarter in 2019 before the pandemic sent demand for its door-to-door deliveries soaring.

But locally, it is going to have the smallest number of heads on the chopping block, in mid-January announcing it will cut 299 with the biggest whack coming at its office at 1440 Broadway, which will send 243 workers on the street as of April 18th.