Microsoft Confirms More Job Losses

Microsoft is once again pruning its workforce numbers, as it reportedly responds to customers seeking ways to reduce their cloud computing spend.

News of the fresh job losses emerged after Microsoft staff in sales and customer service roles took to social media to announce they had lost their jobs, CNBC reported, citing an earlier Geekwire report.

These latest job losses comes on top of the 10,000 job losses, or 5 percent of the workforce, that Microsoft had confirmed in January this year.

Job losses

At the start of the year CEO Satya Nadella justified the workforce reduction, saying Microsoft was seeing “organisations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.”

Microsoft’s culling of its workforce in January followed a wave of layoffs at other tech firms such as HP, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, Twitter, etc.

Microsoft had already made a number of job cuts during 2022.

In May 2022 a senior Microsoft executive warned the management of the Windows and Office divisions to adopt a more conservative approach to hiring new people.

Then in early July 2022 Microsoft cut less than 1 percent of jobs as part of an annual structural adjustment, which it said was routinely carried out every summer.

Later that same month Microsoft began withdrawing job openings in its Azure and security divisions, as its hiring slowdown extended to other divisions.

Then in October 2022 Microsoft confirmed a second round of job losses (reportedly under 1,000 jobs) across multiple divisions but did not confirm actual numbers let go.

Microsoft at the time blamed weaker sales of Windows licenses for PCs, as the economy weakened and PC shipments continued to fall.

Summer cuts

The latest job cuts at Microsoft could be part of Microsoft’s annual structural adjustment in the summer, as evidenced by the July 2022 job losses.

CNBC reported that a Microsoft spokesperson declined to specify the number of cuts in the latest round, but Microsoft filed a notice on Monday saying it would cut 276 people in its home state of Washington.

Of those, 66 positions are virtual.

“Organisational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” the Microsoft spokesperson was quoted by CNBC as writing in an email. “We will continue to prioritise and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”