Google is said to have laid off its entire Python team in the USA. The work will be transferred to a newly formed team in Munich.
According to a post on the social network social.coop (Mastodon), Google has laid off its entire Python team in the United States. A former team member writes that he is deeply saddened by the decision, calling it "by far the best job" in his 20-year career.
The Python team, consisting of fewer than ten people, had been responsible for overseeing a large part of the Python ecosystem at Google and had done "amazing work" over the years, the poster said, despite being chronically understaffed for years. This included maintaining a stable version of Python at Google, updating thousands of third-party packages, and developing a typechecker.
Now Google is reportedly building a new Python team "from scratch" in Munich, Germany. The poster, who is from the Netherlands, is not directly affected by the layoffs, but is tasked with training the new team.
Commentators speculate that the move to Munich is primarily a cost-cutting measure, as developer salaries in Germany are generally lower than in the United States. Stricter job protection in Germany could also be a factor, as it is easier to cut jobs in the US. Google has not yet commented on the layoffs.
Python is a widely used programming language in fields as diverse as web development, data analysis, and artificial intelligence. Considered an "AI-first company," Google uses Python to develop and deploy machine learning and AI models across the company. Some commentators note that Python is less valued at Google outside of the machine learning groups.
