Google closes Melbourne office

The company will also close down its three-year old Melbourne office and consolidate all of its Australian sales operations into its Sydney office in Pyrmont.

The New Zealand office will remain open with a small group of staff charged with supporting Google's partner advertising agencies.

The restructure leaves Google with 350 staff in total between Australia and New Zealand.

The company has slowed its recruitment drive considerably in most territories, but is still planning to hire an additional 20 staff in its Sydney office.

Globally, it is reducing its 21,000 headcount by 200 (about one per cent).

Google laid off 100 recruiters in January, and 40 staff associated with its radio advertising business in February.

"When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right and we certainly didn't," said Google senior vice president of global sales Omid Kordestani.

"In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time."