Microsoft Corporation will lay off approximately 10,000 employees by the end of the third fiscal quarter of 2023 in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday.
“On January 18, 2023, Microsoft Corporation announced to its employees a series of actions it is taking in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities. These actions include workforce reductions of approximately 10,000 employees by the end of the third fiscal quarter of 2023, changes to our hardware portfolio, and lease consolidation to create higher density across our workspaces,” the US Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement. “Collectively these actions will result in a charge of USD 1.2 billion in the second quarter of our 2023 fiscal year, representing a USD 0.12 negative impact to diluted earnings per share,” the statement added.
Earlier, it was reported that Microsoft was laying off thousands of employees to cut 5 per cent of its workforce. Thousands of job cuts are expected in human resources and engineering divisions on Wednesday, Reuters reported citing Sky News.
The layoffs would be the latest in the US technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook.
The company had 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 internationally, as of June 30, according to filings.
Microsoft is under pressure to maintain growth rates at its cloud unit Azure, after several quarters of the downturn in the personal computer market hurt Windows and devices sales, Reuters reported. It had said in July last year that a small number of roles had been eliminated. In October, news site Axios reported that Microsoft had laid off under 1,000 employees across several divisions.
Shares of Microsoft, which is set to report quarterly results on January 24, were marginally higher in late afternoon trading, reported Reuters. Microsoft’s move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs.
Microsoft is the latest big tech company to face a challenging economy, and the job cuts will come just days after Microsoft implemented a new unlimited time off policy. Microsoft employees that have an unused vacation balance will get a one-time payout in April, and managers will be able to approve unlimited “Discretionary Time Off.”
The cuts also come just weeks after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned of two years of challenges ahead for the tech industry. In an interview with CNBC, Nadella admitted Microsoft wasn’t “immune to the global changes” and spoke of the need for tech companies to be efficient. (ANI)
