Google lays off temporary workers but withholds exact figures

Goggle Inc. announced the letting off of a huge number of temporary workers in order to cope up with the draining effects of the economic recession. The company has however outlined big spending that it intends to do in the coming two years. Google has initiated a considerable amount of product research and development along with acquisitions.

  
The plans that were outlined in a regulatory filing hinted at an upcoming purge in the payroll of employees that were not considered to be full time Google employees. Google issued the filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on the 15th of December. The fact that it was issued on paper did not make it available on the Web.

The filing report has certain sections that have not been made public by the company because it contains trade secrets according to them. Google Inc did however make some information public that was previously being withheld. 

Google informed the public regarding its employee strength which includes 24400 full time employees, 4300 interns, temporary workers and contractors. The reports are in sharp contrast to what the company’s co-founder Sergey Brin had said earlier where he counted the contractors to be roughly 10000 in number. During an interview conducted on the 16th of December Brin said the number of contractors was really high.

In November Google commented that it was planning on reducing the number of contractors while keeping its entire full time employee work force in tact. Industry analysts and bloggers began rampant speculation as the company did not specify the number of temporary workers that Google would be letting off. The various speculations churned out went all the way from suggesting a few hundred to the entire 10,000.

The SEC filing does not make the matter any clearer. By stating that the total number of temporary workers of the company amounted to 4300 Google raised confusion amongst the masses who believed it to be 10000 as enlightened previously by Brin. Many believed the difference between the two figures were the amount of people let off by the company but such an assumption was denied by Google spokeswomen Jane Penner. While denying such an abstract conclusion Penner did not mention the exact number of temporary workers the company had let off.