Today, January 18, Microsoft Corporation announced its intention to lay off 10 thousand employees by the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, that is, by the end of March. This corresponds to approximately 5% of all employees in the company. In announcing the cuts, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that by doing so, the company is “bringing the cost structure in line with revenue and where we see consumer demand.” He noted that, while reducing staff in some areas, the company will continue to hire in “key strategic areas”, without explaining, however, which divisions and areas are meant. Yesterday, January 17, Western media wrote, citing sources, that Microsoft intended to lay off 11,000 employees.
Large-scale cuts in technology companies began last year. Many corporations have had to resort to this measure in the face of a difficult macroeconomic situation and a downturn in the online advertising market. So, Meta (recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned) announced the reduction of 11 thousand employees, Twitter – about the reduction of half of the employees (3.7 thousand). Layoffs.fyi estimates that more than 150,000 employees were laid off in the tech industry last year. The cuts continued in 2023: since the beginning of the year, the number of laid-offs has reached 26,000.
Microsoft itself has already announced a 1% layoff last summer and more cuts in October. At the time, the company reported 2% second-quarter revenue growth, the weakest quarterly growth since 2016.