The Web Guild reports Google has begun laying off staff and up to 10,000 ‘Googlers’ can be impacted by this new wave of layoffs. The Web Guild said in August, recruiters said about 500 ex-Googlers were on the job market and that number continues to increase. I am a bit skeptical about the Web Guild’s report, I do hope to substantiate this news more and update it later with a statement from Google, if possible.

Former Yahoo star blogger, Jeremy Zawodny twittered on Friday “Yahoo! layoffs have begun…” I suspect Jeremy is very well-connected with many Yahoo employees, since he just left back in June. In addition, we expected to see Yahoo job cuts this month anyway.

Postscript: See Google cutting contractor workforce from News.com, which has confirmation from Google but also notes that Google previously said in October that it was going to significantly reduce the number of contractors employeed.

Related Topics: Google: Business Issues | Google: Employees | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz