Microsoft has announced some serious employee layoffs
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Microsoft plans to cut some serious jobs across multiple divisions, reports claim.
An anonymous source who speaks with axios (opens in new tab) linked the figure to about 1,000 jobs, though the company has yet to officially confirm the news.
This isn’t the first report we’ve seen that Microsoft has cut its workforce in recent months; in July 2022, the software giant confirmed that it has reduced about 1% of its total workforce.
What is driving the layoffs?
In response to the news, Microsoft declined to provide reasons for the actions.
“Like all companies, we regularly evaluate our business priorities and make structural adjustments accordingly,” it told Axios. “We will continue to invest in our business over the coming year and hire people in key growth areas.”
Microsoft will release its final results on October 25, and while it remains hugely profitable, this success isn’t spread evenly across its various business divisions.
The company’s revenues grew 18% in the third quarter of 2022, while net profit grew 8% year-over-year to $49.4 billion and $16.7 billion, respectively. The company’s cloud division was disproportionately successful, posting revenue growth of 32% to $23.4 billion.
But it’s not just Microsoft cutting staff, and several other tech giants are following as well.
Salesforce reportedly recently laid off about 90 employees, the first round of layoffs since 2020.
In addition, companies including Meta, Google, Apple, Twitter and Amazon have announced all staff cuts in 2022 so far.
Shares of the software giant are down about 30% this year, broadly in line with the rest of the tech-heavy NASDAQ stock index.