Google to Fire 100 Recruiters, Shut Engineering Offices

After threatening to begin job cuts, Google is closing three engineering offices and cutting 100 recruiters from its work force, as the economic meltdown affects hiring at the Internet search company.

Google will close its engineering offices in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway and Lulea, Sweden, a step the company said would affect 70 workers.

“Our strong desire is to keep as many of these 70 engineering employees at Google as possible,” said Google VP Alan Eustace, in a blatant attempt to not be evil.

The company announced in November that it is looking to reduce contract workers while retaining full-time staff. Google hasn’t said how many positions it plans to eliminate.

While giving no sign that it will limit research & development or acquisitions, Google has closed some of its free cafeterias. And instead of its customary $1,000 holiday gift, the company handed out $400 cell phones to workers last month.

Google also appears to be trimming the number of projects to which it devotes engineers and money. The company made four separate announcements this week saying it will cancel some of its less popular applications, such as Notebook and Dodgeball.