Multinational technology giant Microsoft is reportedly planning to lay off more than 10000 employees as part of cutting costs. Media reports suggest that nearly 5 percent of the total workforce at Microsoft will lose their jobs in a mass layoff.
Unverified reports by news outlets state that the company will announce layoffs before it releases earnings reports for the last quarter. The company is set to release its quarterly financial results on 24th January 2023.
Microsoft in 2022 laid off more than 1 percent of its workforce. More than 1000 employees at Microsoft reportedly lost their jobs in October 2022.
Employing more than 220000 workers, Microsoft is one of the largest tech employers in the world. The company is also part of the top 5 tech companies in the United States in terms of market capitalization.
Reports also suggest that upcoming layoffs will have large impacts on the engineering division of the company. In the previous layoff, departments such as consulting, customer, and partner solutions were targeted.
Possible layoffs are coming at Microsoft just days after chief executive officer Satya Nadella said that the tech industry is going to face an extremely challenging economic environment around the world for the next 2 years. During the interview with CNBC, he also stated that similar to other companies, Microsoft is not immune to global challenges and that it is important to run tech businesses efficiently.
Due to the economic crisis, high inflation rate, and possible recession in various parts of the world, tech companies have been going through tumultuous times. Decreasing demand and declining revenue from other streams deeply impacted the financials of the tech companies.
Tech companies that were performing at record levels during the pandemic time later witnessed huge downfalls in their revenue and market positions. 5 major tech companies in the United States, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon suffered huge losses in stock markets as investors decided to sell off shares during economic volatility.
In the first three weeks of 2023, various companies such as Amazon, Vimeo, tech giant Salesforce and Crypto exchange Huobi have announced layoffs of multiple magnitudes.
According to the layoff tracker, nearly 30000 people have lost their jobs due to layoffs since the beginning of 2023. The biggest layoff was executed by e-commerce giant Amazon. Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos fired more than 18000 employees in the first week of January, as part of cost-cutting measures.
