Google Claims To Have Created 210,000 UK Jobs

The Conservative government is trying to tackle the massive amount of tax avoidance by large multinational corporations, but some of them don’t want to play fair.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, launched a study to find out how many jobs the search giant had created inside the United Kingdom. It follows the ‘Google tax’, a 25 per cent corporate tax levied on companies that tend to not pay the full amount in the UK.

Google claims it has both directly and indirectly created 210,000 jobs in the UK.

Most of the jobs are in the advertising industry, but content creation, search engine optimisation, Android development, and cloud security have all indirectly been affected by the search giant, creating new jobs in the area.

Google also claims that thanks to its search engine and open-source services, it is offering more flexibility and income for businesses small and large. Android studios, advertising agencies, and publishers may not be around today if it weren’t for Google, or so the company thinks.

It is hard to claim that all of these 210,000 jobs wouldn’t have been filled by other company or government efforts. Google seems to be flexing its muscles, claiming it is a force for good and not evil in the UK, but the government would disagree.

Google only paid £6 million in corporate tax in 2013, despite earning £395 million in sales across the UK. That is a serious issue, and Google’s 210,000 job creation shouldn’t sugarcoat the massive amount of tax avoidance by the multinational company.

“Google is a growth engine for British businesses large and small, helping them unlock their digital potential,” said Eileen Naughton, Google’s managing director for UK and Ireland. “Our technology helps companies be discovered by new customers, boosts productivity by helping teams collaborate better, and helps content creators get paid for their creativity. As people live their lives digitally, the traditional rules of doing business are changing and the opportunities for fast growth are powered by the web.”