Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will lay off 12,000 workers, the latest round of layoffs in the tech industry. In an internal email, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated that he accepted “full responsibility” for the layoffs.

The layoffs will affect 6% of Alphabet’s global workforce, including teams such as recruitment and engineering.

This comes just days after Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts and weeks after Amazon announced 18,000 layoffs.

Pichai thanked staff for “working so hard” in their roles, adding that their “contributions have been invaluable”.

“While this transition won’t be easy, we’re going to support employees as they look for their next opportunity. Until then, please take good care of yourselves as you absorb this difficult news. As part of that, if you are just starting your work day, please feel free to work from home today,” he wrote.

According to a recent filing with Companies House, Google employs over 5,500 people in the United Kingdom. However, it is unknown how many of these will be impacted by the cuts.

Pichai announced severance packages for US employees, including at least 16 weeks of salary, their 2022 bonus, paid vacations, and six months of health insurance.

He said he remained “optimistic about our ability to deliver on our mission, even on our toughest days”.

Wall Street reacted positively to the cuts, with Alphabet shares rising 3.5% in pre-market trading.

Analysts say tech’s big guns have previously overspent, with no signs of a slowdown on the horizon.

Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said the layoffs highlight irresponsible spending across a sector basking in “hypergrowth”.

“The reality is tech stalwarts over-hired at a pace that was unsustainable and now darker macro is forcing these layoffs across the tech space,” he said.

According to the tech site Layoffs.fyi, nearly 194,000 industry employees in the United States have lost their jobs since the start of 2022, not including those announced by Alphabet on Friday.

Hewlett Packard and Salesforce, the cloud computing giant, both announced significant layoffs this month, as rampant inflation and rising interest rates slowed growth.

The European Union has begun enforcing regulations to prevent US tech giants from evading taxes, stifling competition, profiting from news content without paying, and serving as platforms for disinformation and hatred.

(Adapted from NBCNews.com)