Alphabet added 20,000 jobs last year, now has 100,000 employees

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has announced that it added nearly 20,000 employees in the last year taking the total headcount to 103,549 in the first quarter of 2019, up from 85,050 a year ago.

Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said this at a conference call with analysts. He said cloud computing has been a "primary area for headcount growth."

Alphabet has diversified into many new areas including cloud computing, hardware, and self-driving cars.

In the fast-growing cloud market, the company is investing more resources to compete with market leader Amazon and other players including Microsoft.

Alphabet still behind Amazon in headcount

However, despite the growth in employees and Alphabet having three times the staff strength of Facebook, it is still behind Amazon, which has more than half a million plus employees working in retail and fulfillment roles.

As an employer, Google had a prime reputation as one of the top places in the world to work. But last November, Google employees staged walkouts on a global basis resenting the management's indifference to matters including workplace sexual harassment and discrimination at the workplace.

Revenue and business growth

Meanwhile, the Alphabet posted $36.3 billion in revenue in the first three months of 2019, with 85 percent of it coming from Google's advertising business.

The overall revenue grew just 17 percent from the same period, a year ago and missed Wall Street estimates.

Concerns are up on the rising competition pressure faced by the company on its core business from Facebook and new players like Amazon.

Slowing sales growth

The modest sales revenue growth at 17 percent, compared to 26 percent growth a year ago is a red flag.

While advertising brought the bulk of Google's revenues at $30.7 billion, "other bets", the company's investment in new gen technologies like Waymo self-driving unit and the Project Loon internet balloons are still in the loss.

Huge operating losses at $868 million and revenues at measly $170 million are causing anxiety.

Role of consumer technology jobs in the economy

Meanwhile, findings of a report by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) said U.S. consumer technology jobs are spawning too many non-tech jobs in the American economy at the rate of one for three.

The report said consumer tech sector supports 18.2 million American jobs.

"Our industry is delivering 19 percent of jobs impact growth and 22 percent growth in overall economic impact," said Gary Shapiro, president, CTA.

Shapiro said the U.S tech sector continues to be a big driver of the nation's economy.

In terms of wages, it pays $1.3 trillion annually contributes $503 billion in annual taxes and pumps $2.3 trillion to the nation's economy, that comes to almost 12 percent of U.S, GDP.

The top export markets for U.S. consumer technology goods include Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands.

This article originally appeared in IBTimes US.