Microsoft is laying off as many as 4%, or roughly 9,100, of its employees in the largest round of job cuts since 2023, international media reported on Wednesday. The tech giant was planning to cut thousands of jobs, particularly in sales, according to recent reports in June. Microsoft had also announced layoffs in May, which affected around 6,000 employees.
Corporate America has kicked off a series of job cuts across sectors as companies attempt to streamline operations amid economic uncertainties, following similar cutbacks seen last year. Microsoft has held several rounds of layoffs already this year. In January, it cut less than 1% of headcount based on performance. The 50-year-old software company slashed more than 6,000 jobs in May and then at least 300 more in June.
As of June 2024, it employed 228,000 people. In 2023, it laid off 10,000. Perhaps the largest culling of Microsoft workers came in 2014, when the company eliminated 18,000 after acquiring Nokia’s devices and services business.
As was the case with the May layoffs, Microsoft is looking to reduce the number of layers of managers that stand between individual contributors and top executives, said the person who asked not to be named while discussing internal matters. Microsoft reported nearly $26 billion in net income on $70 billion in revenue for the March quarter. The numbers were well ahead of Wall Street’s consensus, keeping Microsoft ranked as one of the most profitable companies in the S&P 500 index, according to data compiled by FactSet.
Executives called for about 14% year-over-year revenue growth in the June quarter, thanks to expected expansion in Azure cloud services and corporate productivity software subscriptions. Microsoft stock closed at a record high of $497.45 per share on June 26. At the start of Wednesday’s trading session, the shares were down about 0.6%, while the S&P 500 was roughly flat.
