Google slashing contractor jobs

Google, the technology giant, is showing the first signs of a struggle with the economic woes that are sweeping the globe.

Like Yahoo, Google too has begun to downsize its headcount, starting for now, with its workforce of more than 10,000 contractors. A report by San Jose Mercury News had quoted Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder as saying that the number was ''really high'', which Google started to think about downsizing around six months ago through vendor management, by converting some contractors to regular employees, amongst other approaches.

Reports said that Google spokeswoman Jane Penner did not comment on how many contractor positions would go, or whether the contracts would either be cancelled or not be renewed. No specified time frame for the cuts was forthcoming either, though reports suggested that Penner did confirm that some would be laid off, or reassigned.

Penner was reported as saying that Google employed 10,000 contractors, and has had a plan in place for awhile to ''significantly reduce that number''. She said that Google was mulling the move for around seven months, even before the current economic crisis came to the fore. 

Google has around 20,000 employees, and is being frugal about its hiring. Reports suggested that the company would absorb only about a handful, if any, of its temp workers. Temps at Google include public relations staffers, cafeteria workers and bus drivers. Though Google is required to make public according to SEC mandate, reports said that it went around this requirement by using various tactics, speculating that one of the tactics was moving workers from job to job every couple of months to preserve their temporary status.

(Also see: Layoffs start to hurt Silicon Valley)