Google workers in the UK and Ireland face uncertainty after parent Alphabet announced 12,000 jobs are to go globally.
The US Silicon Valley giant currently employs more than 5,000 staff in both countries, but the company would not be drawn on how the mass redundancies would impact them.
Google becomes the latest large US tech firm to reduce its workforce after a pandemic-related hiring boom.
Alphabet's chief executive Sundar Pichai said the redundancies followed a "rigorous review" of the business.
News about the job losses was revealed by the CEO in an e-mail to employees.
He said the company had hired for "periods of dramatic growth" over the past two years, but that was a "different economic reality than the one we face today".
Mounting job losses
Sky News says the latest cuts come just days after Microsoft said it would axe 10,000 workers, while Facebook parent Meta is cutting 11,000 posts and Amazon is slashing 18,000 jobs.
Alphabet's job losses affect teams across the company, including recruiting and some corporate functions as well as some engineering and products teams.
On the decision to cut posts, Mr Pichai told staff: "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.
"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."
He added: "I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI.
Tough choices
"To fully capture it, we'll need to make tough choices. So, we've undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company.
"The roles we're eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions."
Tech firms laid off more than 150,000 workers globally last year, with tens of thousands more to come in 2023.
Dan Ives, an analyst at the US financial services company Wedbush Securities, said the job cuts reflected previously-buoyant tech companies responding to a much-tougher global economic environment.
"We are seeing 5%-10% headcount cuts across the tech sector as many of these companies (both big and small) were spending money like 1980s rock stars and now need to rein in the expense controls."