The online giant Google prepares to lay off some 10,000 employees, the WebGuild organization says, relying on anonymous sources in the market. Google already laid off several hundreds of employees, but the "big figures" are yet to come, Washington Post reads, quoting WebGuild. Google officials haven't made any comment on the speculation yet.

"By law, Google is required to report layoffs publicly and with the SEC however, Google has managed to get around the legal requirement. In fact, one of the ways Google was able to meet Wall Street’s Q3 earnings expectations was by trimming “operational” expense", WebGuild comments.

According to the organization, Google reports to the SEC that it has 20,123 employees but in reality it has 30,000. Why the discrepancy? Google classifies 10,000 of the employees as temporary operational expenses or “workers”.

However, Google already announced that the winter holidays celebration will not be as sumptuous as in the past years.