Sept 13 (Reuters) – Google parent Alphabet GOOGL.O has decided to cut staff from its global recruitment team as the tech giant continues to slow hiring, it said on Wednesday.

The company’s decision to lay off several hundred employees is not part of a large-scale layoff and will allow a large part of the team to be retained for critical positions. It will also help workers find positions within the company and elsewhere.

Alphabet is the first “Big Tech” company to lay off employees this quarter, following companies such as Meta

META.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Amazon AMZN.O aggressively cut their workforces earlier in 2023 as a weak economy ended their hiring sprees.

California-based Alphabet cut about 12,000 jobs ( link ) in January, reducing its workforce by 6%.

According to a report by the staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in the US increased threefold in August compared to July and almost quadrupled compared to the previous year.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims for state jobless benefits would rise about 8% in the week ended Sept. 9, after falling 13,000 to 216,000 in the previous seven-day period.