Microsoft Says it Will Sack 10,000 Employees

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it would sack 10,000 employees — almost five per cent of its total workforce — in the days to come amid concerns over a global economic downturn. The job cuts were “in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities,” the maker of the Windows operating system said in a US regulatory filing.

Microsoft is the latest to cut jobs after Facebook and Amazon as the bloodbath in the tech sector, which began last year, continues into 2023.

In a communique with employees, Microsoft’s Indian-origin CEO Satya Nadella said the company will align its cost structure with revenue and customer demand.

“Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs” through the end of the third quarter of the fiscal year 2023. “This represents less than 5 per cent of our total employee base. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted,” Nadella’s mail read.

The communication further read that “while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas”. Nadella also stressed the importance of building a “new computer platform” using advances in artificial intelligence. He said customers that were accelerating their spending on digital technology during the pandemic are now trying to “optimize their digital spend to do more with less.”

“We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one,” Nadella wrote.

In November, Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp terminated over 11,000 workers — about 13 per cent of its workforce.

Amazon is laying off more than 18,000 employees as global economic uncertainty forces companies to trim costs and restructure operations. Elon Musk, the new Twitter CEO, has also trimmed the company’s workforce.

(With agency inputs)

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