According to a number of media reports, software giant Microsoft Corporation is preparing to lay off thousands of employees. This is the latest layoff initiative taken by the global technology giant in the face of the global economic slowdown.
According to Sky News, Microsoft is likely to announce plans to cut a large number of jobs worldwide in the next few days. Microsoft has more than 220,000 employees, including 6,000 in the United Kingdom. Microsoft is reportedly considering cutting about 5 percent of its workforce, which would amount to about 11,000 jobs if the information is accurate. As of Tuesday evening local time, Sky News could not confirm the layoff figure. One analyst said Wall Street would be surprised if the job cuts were no larger than that.
According to other media reports, people familiar with the matter said that Microsoft plans to lay off employees in several engineering departments on Wednesday. The specific size of the layoffs is unclear, but will greatly exceed the other layoffs Microsoft has made in the past year. These previous layoffs have affected less than 1 percent of Microsoft’s 200,000-plus employees.
Recently, Microsoft has been in July and October of last year for layoffs, and canceled a number of departments of the vacant positions, suspended the recruitment. While tech peers such as Amazon.com, Facebook parent Meta Platform and Salesforce have announced thousands of layoffs in the past few months, Microsoft has so far been taking smaller steps to address the worsening global economic outlook and the possibility of a long-term slowdown in demand for software and services.
Microsoft will release its fiscal third-quarter earnings next week. If Microsoft’s job cuts are finalized, the company could announce them before Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella briefs investors on the company’s financial results on Jan. 24. Microsoft’s third-quarter sales are expected to grow 2 percent, which would be the slowest revenue growth since fiscal 2017. Microsoft’s cloud business has driven a recovery in growth since fiscal 2017, but even that business has begun to decelerate in the past year.
Microsoft would not comment. As of Tuesday’s close, Microsoft shares were up 0.47 percent, having fallen a cumulative 23 percent over the past year.
