Google reportedly rescind job offers to more than 2,000 contractors and temporary workers amid coronavirus pandemic uncertainty

As the coronavirus pandemic created uncertainty for businesses across industries, Alphabet’s Google reportedly rescinded job offers to more than 2,000 contractors and temporary workers, according to a report published Friday in the New York Times.

Citing an email received from Google, New York Times reported on Friday that Google told contracting agencies last week that it has been “slowing our pace of hiring and investment, and are not bringing on as many new starters as we had planned at the beginning of the year.” Google said it would not “not be moving forward to onboard” the workers it had brought on through the agencies.

Google currently employs more than 130,000 contractors and temp workers, a shadow work force that outnumbers its 123,000 full-time employees. As of Q3 2019, Google has 114,096  employees.

“Many of the contract and temp candidates who had agreed to work at Google before the pandemic took hold in the United States were let go without any severance or financial compensation. This came after weeks of uncertainty as Google repeatedly postponed their start dates during which time they were not paid by Google or the staffing agencies,” NY Times said.