Microsoft is set to announce 11,000 job cuts

Multiple sources indicate that the tech giant Microsoft is about to make massive job cuts.

According to media reports, Microsoft is planning to lay off 5% of its total workforce of more than 221,000 people, or approximately 11,000 people.

Microsoft will be following in the footsteps of other tech behemoths such as Meta, Twitter, Salesforce, and Amazon, among others, which have been massively laying off employees since last year in response to a global economic downturn.

While Microsoft has yet to confirm or deny the reports, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the software company plans to cut jobs in some engineering divisions.

Microsoft is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings report next week, and Sky News sources believe that details about the impending job cuts may be released before then.

Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella warned in October 2022 of the need to manage cost structure and respond to increased headwinds. It is also fighting to keep a proposed acquisition of games publisher Activision Blizzard alive, with regulatory scrutiny against the deal increasing. 

Unending tech layoffs: Although industry analysts already predicted that the wave of layoffs that started last year may not end until mid-2023, the scale at which it is happening has been getting worse since the beginning of this year. 

Earlier this year, Salesforce announced plans to cut off 10% of its workforce, which will affect over 7,000 workers in the company. A few days later, Amazon also came out with its plans to lay off 18,000 people as a result of uncertainties in the economy.  

• Facebook parent Meta had last year announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Before that, Twitter had laid off almost half of its workforce as Elon Musk took over the ownership of the social media company.  
• Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg as well as Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, have blamed themselves for over-hiring early on in the pandemic and misreading how a surge in demand for their products would cool once Covid-19 restrictions eased.