Google announced Friday that it planned to cut about 12,000 jobs, joining other tech giants who are downsizing staff by the thousands.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, confirmed the layoffs in an email sent to Google employees, which was later published in a Google blog post.

The job cuts would reduce the company's workforce by about 6%.

"This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that," Pichai wrote. "The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

"Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."

Tracking tech layoffs: Why companies like Amazon and Meta cut jobs in 2022

Pichai said the layoffs reflect the result of a “rigorous review" of Google's operations. The jobs being eliminated will be "cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions," he said.

How many employees does Google have?

According to a regulatory filing in September 2022, Alphabet said it employed nearly 187,000 people, compared with about 150,000 employees at the end of 2021 and 119,000 in 2019.

The 12,000 job cuts announced Friday represent more than 6% of total staff.

Have employees affected by Google's layoffs been notified?

According to Pichai's message, U.S. employees have already been notified. He noted that the process will take longer in other countries because of local laws and practices.

In the U.S., employees who are laid off will be paid for the notification period (60 days), 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time. Google will also offer a severance package starting at 16 weeks plus two additional weeks for every year an employee worked at Google – as well as six months of health care, immigration support and job placement services, according to Friday's message.

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Alphabet stock (GOOG)

Alphabet's stock (GOOG) was up more than 2% in early trading Friday.

Google's layoffs join Amazon, Microsoft and more

Google isn't the only tech giant that has initiated mass layoffs in recent months.

Accounting for Google's staff cuts, more than 200,000 tech industry workers have been laid off since the start of 2022, according to Layoffs.fyi.

Earlier this week, Amazon began laying off thousands of employees. On Jan. 4, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company planned to cut more than 18,000 employees "between the reductions we made in November and the ones we’re sharing today."

New layoff notifications for about 8,000 employees began Wednesday – just months after an initial round of 10,000 job cuts.

Wednesday: Amazon begins next round of layoffs, as tech giant cuts total of more than 18,000 jobs

Also this week: Microsoft to lay off 10,000 employees starting Wednesday; roughly 5% of workforce affected

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts, or nearly 5% of its workforce. And Facebook parent Meta announced 11,000 job cuts, or 13% of its workforce, in November.

Contributing: Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Google layoffs: 12,000 jobs cut, reducing employee count by 6%