Wow!  Google brought on 2,452 new people in 3 months. That’s 40 each and every business day. 5 per hour. Holy hiring engine!

Morning Coffee
Jul 15, 2011
Joseph Walker

You’ve got to spend money to make money. The old saying could very easily be Google’s mantra after the company reported big profits yesterday along with big upticks in spending on infrastructure and new hires. Capital expenditures increased by 92% from the same period last year to $917 million, while operating expenses grew by 49% to $2.97 billion. Still, the company beat Wall Street expectations and earned $2.51 billion in profit.
As expected, Google continued its banner hiring year in the second quarter, adding 2,452 new employees — or Nooglers, in Google parlance — in three months, bringing its total increase in headcount up to 4,368 at the half-way mark of the year. The company announced that before the year started that it would hire more people than ever before, even more than the 6,000-plus it added in 2007. Well, it’s nearly three-quarters of the way toward that number just halfway through the year.

CEO Larry Page seemed downright giddy in reporting recent successes like 10 million Google+ users despite the service being invite-only still, and that more than half a million Android phones are activated everyday.
Page also gave some insight into its big hiring year. Google has always believed in the power of individual engineers to have outsized impact, and with Page’s mission of accelerating and streamlining Google’s product development, the man wants bodies. “Continuing to hire the best” and keeping employees “well-rewarded and happy” is crucial to Google’s long-term success, Page said in a call with analysts. It was also revealed during the call that engineers are the majority of the company’s new hires, with salespeople coming in second.
What explains the explosive pace of hiring? Well, Page said that the company’s 10% across-the-board salary increase “had even more of a positive affect on hiring and retention than we expected.”
But will we see similar new hire numbers in the third and fourth quarters? Page did cast some doubt on the prospect, saying that “we’re probably even a little ahead of where we need to be with headcount growth.” (WSJ, FINS)