Microsoft may layoff ‘thousands’ of employees this week

2023 hasn’t begun on a bright note for many Microsoft employees as it has been reported mass layoffs will happen at the company. According to a report by Sky News, Microsoft could announce thousands of job cuts across the world this week. The report suggests that Microsoft could reduce its total workforce by 5%. Microsoft has close to 2.2 lakh employees worldwide; if the 5% figure is accurate, close to 11,000 jobs might be cut. A report by Bloomberg suggests that the looming job cuts will impact the engineering divisions the most.

Layoffs at Microsoft: Second time in three months

Back in October 2022, Microsoft had said that it is making “structural changes” but didn’t confirm how many employees were laid off. Multiple reports suggested that close to 1,000 employees were let go by the company then. “Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead,” Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft will not be the first company to cut thousands of jobs in recent months. Facebook’s parent company Meta cut 11,000 jobs late in 2022. Amazon also laid off close to 18,000 employees at the fag end of 2022.
In October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned about the challenges for the tech industry. In an interview with CNBC, Nadella said that the next two years are probably going to be the most challenging. “We did have a lot of acceleration during the pandemic, and there’s some amount of normalisation of that demand. And on top of it, there is a real recession in some parts of the world.”
Microsoft hasn’t officially commented on the impending layoffs but we can expect to hear more from the company on January 24, when it announces its quarterly results.