Big tech firms have experienced numerous challenges in the past year or so due to the global economic downturn, leading to hiring freezes and layoffs. Recent examples include a massive reduction in job openings and laying off 18,000 employees by Amazon, and similar practices by Tesla, Meta, HP, and Twitter. Following the layoff of over 1,000 employees last year, Microsoft is reported to let go of over 10,000 workers today.
The latest report comes from Sky News, which claims that Microsoft will lay off 5% of its workforce today. While that figure may sound insignificant, in a company as large as Microsoft, it impacts roughly 11,000 employees. Although the previous layoff primarily affected the Xbox and Azure divisions, it"s unclear if the latest round will be wider in scope. In fact, word from Wall Street is that it"d be surprising if the actual figure is not higher than the one being reported.
While reduction in headcount is an unpleasant but sometimes necessary practice in the jobs space, the optics continue to be poor for Microsoft as the Redmond tech firm is striving to close a $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
That said, Microsoft has not confirmed the layoffs yet and declined to comment on the matter when reached out to by the outlet. We"ll likely be able to determine the credibility of the report within the next few hours.
Source: Sky News