Microsoft is about to make major cuts across multiple departments, reports say.
Anonymous source appealing to Axios (opens in a new tab) put the figure at around 1,000 jobs, although the company has yet to officially confirm the news.
This isn’t the first report we’ve seen that Microsoft has cut its workforce in recent months; in July 2022, the software giant confirmed that it had cut about 1% of total employment.
What drives layoffs?
In response to the message, Microsoft declined to state reasons for its actions.
“Like all companies, we regularly evaluate our business priorities and make appropriate structural adjustments,” said Axios. “We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas over the coming year.”
Microsoft is expected to announce its latest earnings on October 25, and while it’s still remarkably profitable, this success isn’t being shared equally among the various business divisions.
The company’s revenues grew 18% in the third quarter of 2022, while net profit increased by 8% year-on-year to $ 49.4 billion and $ 16.7 billion, respectively. The company’s cloud division was disproportionately successful, growing 32% in revenue to $ 23.4 billion.
But it’s not just Microsoft that is cutting down on staff, and several other tech giants are also following in their footsteps.
Salesforce has recently reportedly laid off around 90 employees, the first round of layoffs since 2020.
In addition, companies including Meta, Google, Apple, Twitter and Amazon have so far announced their employment suspension in 2022.
The software giant’s shares have fallen around 30% this year, which is broadly in line with the rest of the technology-based NASDAQ stock index.