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The escalating cost of hiring world-class talent is taking its toll on Google - and it could impact high-tech job seekers elsewhere too. At last week’s earnings announcement Google management indicated a new willingness to reconsider its hiring approach.

Known for lavish spending on recruiting top talent, Google may reconsider its torrid pace of hires and aggressive bonus structures to reward strong contributors. In Google’s second quarter, just ended, the company hired 1,548 employees, boosting its total number of employees to 13,786.

The search engine leader apparently has solidified its recruitment operations. “We finally have a staffing division that can deliver at a rate that we need,” said Sergey Brin, a co-founder, at the company’s recent earnings conference, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

At stake is much more than three meals a day and laundry services among other perks for employees. If going out and recruiting world-class talent becomes too expensive for Google, then it will be forced to slow its hiring cycles to more manageable levels.

A change in Google’s hiring strategy could have a ripple effect in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Leading high-tech employers tend to conduct global talent hunts, recruiting at elite colleges and offering large internship programs designed to flag promising talent. Google, along with Microsoft, Yahoo!, Intel, and HP are considered among the best at hiring promising graduates. If they pull back it could negatively impact salaries paid to new hires and younger workers.

The announcement comes at a time when the U.S. Labor market is beginning to cool off. Last week the unemployment rate stepped up to 4.6 percent, the highest it has been in six months.