Google’s parent company Alphabet confirmed it will lay off hundreds of staff members who helped recruit and hire employees, reports CNN. The latest cuts come after Alphabet eliminated 12,000 jobs in January , or about 6% of its workforce, across the company as it grappled with economic uncertainty that hit the company’s bottom line last year, especially its core advertising business. The cuts will affect a few hundred members of Google’s recruiting organization globally; most of the team will remain and continue hiring for critical roles such as top engineering talent, according to Google. The company did not specify the exact number of layoffs in the department.

Google also said the recruiting cuts are not part of any wider layoffs, and that affected employees will be supported with severance offers and other benefits. Some Google recruiters for the company’s cloud, user experience, software engineering and other teams posted on LinkedIn, noting they had been affected by the layoffs.

Alphabet grew its workforce by more than 50,000 employees starting in 2021 as booming demand for its services during the pandemic boosted profits. But last year, the company’s core digital ad business slowed as fears of an economic downturn or a recession caused advertisers to pull back their spending.

Recently, the tech giant made headlines in Europe after it was reported Danish job board Jobindex is suing Google after it found that the tech giant and the company's partners sometimes copied the Danish job board's job advertisements.