Google Invests in Hiring Expansion

HIRING SPREE: Cars are parked on Jan. 26 near where Google will open a new office in the Binoculars Building in the Venice section of Los Angeles, Calif. Google also announced its largest hiring spree, with 6,200 employees to be added this year. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Hiring numbers will be boosted for Google, Inc. in 2011. According to the Associated Press, Google has announced plans to hire more staff and follow the trend of 2010, when it hired almost 4,600 people, by hiring an additional 6,200 in 2011. This is the largest expansion to date by the Internet’s most profitable company. There are currently 24,400 employees at Google.

The announcement of Google’s recruitment plans coincided with competitor Yahoo, Inc. confirming that it will cut 100 to 150 jobs, which is around 1 percent of its payroll.

Although the locations of the new positions for the leading Internet search company have not been publicized, the majority of its staff are based in the United States. Furthermore, current Chief Executive Office Eric Schmidt, who will be replaced by Larry Page in April of this year, recently advised that there will be more than 1,000 new positions created in Europe alone.

“At this stage, the number of opportunities just vastly exceed the number of people we have at the company,” said Alan Eustace, Google’s senior vice president of engineering and research, reported AP.

There are, however, investors who may not be enthusiastic about the cost associated with the recruitment initiative. Google executives are determined to bolster skills in the computer engineering department and in sales in order to maintain their position in online search and advertising.

The diversification into different areas like the saturated and aggressive market for smartphones has propelled company growth for Google. In a company blog, Alan Eustace, said that “Many of our big bets—on mobile, display advertising, the cloud, and more—really started to pay off.”

Google’s operating system platform, Android, now operates on more than 100 different devices and has 300,000 activations per day. Around 1 million businesses opted for Google applications in 2010.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has offices in 30 countries. Its headquarters is often referred to as the “Googleplex,” indicating the magnitude of the presence and growth of its business.

The recruitment process to join Google is famously rigorous and competitive, with more than 1 million applications every year. The Internet search giant also has attempted to retain its staff by giving an across the board 10 percent pay raise in 2010, which, according to analyst estimates, could increase operating expenses by $500 million in 2011.