San Francisco, Sep 13 (IANS): Google is laying off hundreds of employees from its recruiting team globally, as the new hiring has slowed down at the Alphabet company, the media reported.

The tech giant said in a statement that the “volume of requests for our recruiters has gone down”.

Google, however, declined to reveal the exact number of people being asked to go from its recruiting workforce, reports Semafor.

“In order to continue our important work to ensure we operate efficiently, we’ve made the hard decision to reduce the size of our recruiting team,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

“We’re supporting everyone impacted with a transition period, outplacement services, and severance as they look for new opportunities here at Google and beyond,” the spokesperson added.

Google slowed down the pace of hiring last year amid the global economic slowdown.

On January 20 this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed in a letter to employees that about 12,000 people will be laid off globally, accounting for more than 6 per cent of the total workforce.

Google India terminated more than 400 employees.

In March, the tech giant informed its employees via an email that fewer of them will be promoted to more senior levels this year as compared to the past.

In a bid to further cut costs, Google even asked employees who return to work to share their work desks with a "partner" to maximise office space, according to earlier reports.

Amid layoffs, Google also created several cost-cutting measures such as cutting down on free snacks and workout classes for its existing employees.

The company also discontinued spending on personal equipment like laptops, according to an internal memo.