Google to hire 1000 people in Michigan, saves $38 million

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm announced that Google has chosen the Ann Arbor area to establish a new sales and operations center for its Google’s Adwords online advertising program. Google and Granholm expect that the company will 1000 new direct jobs and more than 1200 spin-off jobs in its first five years of operation.

While 1000 new employees may sound overwhelming, Google did not announce how many people it plans to hire initially and how quickly the sales center staff will grow. Also, Google isn’t quite a small company anymore. According to its Q1 2006 earnings release, Google’s full-time employee headcount has almost doubled over the past year, growing from 3482 on 31 March 2005 to 6790 on 31 March 2006. This number does not include a "significant" amount of temporary employees.

Granholm said that she had directed Michigan Economic Development Corporation MEDC president and CEO James Epolito to go after the new Google project more than a year ago. She confirmed that a "High-Tech Single Business Tax" credit valued at more than $38 million over 20 years helped to win Google’s investment.