News: Microsoft plans to lay off nearly 1,000 workers over weaker sales

Employee Relations

Microsoft plans to lay off nearly 1,000 workers over weaker sales

The silicon valley giant has endured the lowest revenue growth in five years in this quarter, which ended on September 30th.
Microsoft plans to lay off nearly 1,000 workers over weaker sales

IT tech giant Microsoft is planning to lay off nearly 1,000 workers across multiple divisions as the software maker’s revenue is expected to slow in the coming months. The latest move seems to come after Microsoft reported weaker sales of Windows licenses for PCs.

According to the Microsoft website, they currently house about 2,21,000 employees worldwide. According to the latest move, 0.45% (nearly 1000 workers) of the workforce would be relieved of their jobs. The number of layoffs spans various departments and regions including gaming and operating systems such as Xbox, Windows and Edge. 

"Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC.com.

Microsoft is scheduled to release quarterly earnings on 25 October 2022 and after that, the firm is expected to take a final call. 

The latest layoff reports come almost three months after Microsoft announced they would be sacking 18,000 employees over the next year as part of “structural readjustment”. This included 12,500 workers in the company’s sales, marketing, and engineering divisions. 

Microsoft is the latest to join the long list of tech companies that have decided to lay off employees in 2022. Meta dissolved its “responsible innovation team’. Snapchat parent company Snap laid off 20% of their workforce. Twilio’s CEO announced they would be laying off 11% of their workforce due to restructuring. Along with the attrition, many companies like Apple, Oracle, Google and more have also announced a hiring freeze for the incoming months.  

The ‘layoff winter’ has impacted South Asian countries like India, with companies like Byju’s and EPAM planning to lay off workers in thousands.

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Topics: Employee Relations, #Layoffs, #EmployeeExperience

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