Microsoft is reportedly likely to lay off thousands of employees today, January 18, in order to reduce around 5% of its workforce or about 11,000 roles. According to various media reports, the software giant is looking to cut thousands of jobs in human resources and engineering divisions on Wednesday.
The job cuts would be the latest in the US technology industry, where firms including Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have announced downsizing exercises in response to sluggish demand and a gloomy outlook for the global economy.
Microsoft struggling to keep up growth rates: Reports
As of June 30, 2022, the company had 2,21,000 full-time employees, including 1,22,000 in the US and 99,000 globally. After the personal computer market slump affected Windows and device sales for several quarters, Microsoft is under pressure to keep up growth rates at its cloud business Azure, as per reports.
Earlier in July last year, the company stated that a small number of roles had been eliminated. In October, it was reported that Microsoft fired around 1,000 employees across several divisions.
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What does Microsoft's move mean?
Microsoft's move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs amid the global economic slowdown.
It should be mentioned here that Microsoft is the latest big tech company to face a challenging economy, and the job cuts will come just days after the firm implemented a new unlimited time off policy.
According to reports Microsoft employees that have an unused vacation balance will get a one-time payout in April, and managers will be able to approve unlimited "Discretionary Time Off."
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(With inputs from ANI)
