Last updated on July 7th, 2023 at 04:29 pm
Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees today. Thousands of roles would be cut at the software giant, with around 5 percent of the workforce, or about 11,000 roles looking to be cut.
On Wednesday, it is expected that there will be thousands of job cuts in human resources and engineering divisions. Retrenchment exercises by companies including Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook would be the latest in the US technology sector.
As of June 30, the company had 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 internationally, according to filings.
After several quarters of the downturn in the personal computer market hurt Windows and devices sales, Microsoft is under pressure to maintain growth rates at its cloud unit Azure, reported Reuters.
It had said in July last year that a small number of roles had been eliminated. Axios reported in October that Microsoft had laid off under 1,000 employees across several divisions.
According to Reuters, shares of Microsoft, which is set to report quarterly results on January 24, were marginally higher in late afternoon trading. The tech sector may continue to shed jobs, as indicated by Microsoft’s recent move.
Microsoft is the latest big tech company to face a challenging economy, and the job cuts come just days after the company implemented a new unlimited time off policy. Microsoft employees who have unused vacation balances will receive a one-time payment in April. Managers will be able to approve an unlimited amount of “Discretionary Time Off”.
The cuts come weeks after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned of two years of challenges ahead for the tech industry. Nadella acknowledged in an interview with CNBC that Microsoft was not “immune to global changes” and spoke of the need for tech companies to be efficient.
