Google will keep its employees home until at least next July, making the search-engine giant the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable amid coronavirus pandemic.
The move will affect nearly all of the roughly 200,000 full-time and contract employees across Google parent Alphabet Inc., GOOG -1.95% and adds pressure to other technology giants that have slated staff to return as soon as January.
Businesses from factories to salons and restaurants are grappling with if and when to reopen amid a stubborn rise in Covid-19 cases around the country. Though some offices have added plexiglass barriers and other social-distancing protections, the risk of outbreaks among workers remains.
Even for those industries where work from home is relatively manageable, the return has been slow. In New York, fewer than one-tenth of Manhattan office workers are back to the workplace, a full month after the city gave businesses the green light to reoccupy buildings vacated in March.
