Reports claim that Microsoft intends to seriously reduce employment in many departments.
Anonymous source in conversation Axios (opens in a new tab) set 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 staff numbers in recent months; in July 2022, the software giant confirmed it had cut around 1% of its total workforce.
What is driving layoffs?
In response to this message, Microsoft declined to provide reasons for taking action.
“Like all companies, we regularly reassess our business priorities and adjust structural ones accordingly,” said Axios. “We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas over the coming year.”
Microsoft is due to announce its latest earnings on October 25, and while it continues to generate huge profits, that success is not evenly shared among its various business divisions.
The company’s revenue grew 18% in the third quarter of 2022, while net profit increased 8% year-on-year to $49.4 billion and $16.7 billion, respectively. The company’s cloud division has been disproportionately successful, with revenue increasing 32% to $23.4 billion.
But it’s not just Microsoft that is cutting jobs, and several other tech giants are also following suit.
Salesforce recently reportedly laid off around 90 employees, its first round of layoffs since 2020.
In addition, companies such as Meta, Google, Apple, Twitter and Amazon have announced hiring freezes in 2022 so far.
The software giant’s shares are down about 30% this year, broadly in line with the rest of NASDAQ’s high-tech stock market index.