Microsoft Plans to Lay Off 10,000 Employees, Citing Concerns of Economic Downturn
Cutting a little less than 5% of its overall workforce.
Microsoft will be laying off 10,000 employees, equating to a little less than 5% of its workforce. The company detailed its decision to cut jobs in its latest amid concerns of a looming recession in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in the filing that the company has witnessed “organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.”
The company’s workforce comprises 221,000 employees, about 122,000 of who are based in the U.S. Microsoft has already begun firing employees and said it plans to complete the wave of layoffs before the end of its fiscal third quarter, which will wrap up in March of this year.
Nadella pointed to a decreased demand for services compared to the start of the pandemic, writing that “[Microsoft] saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less.”
He shared that the company would spend about $1.2 billion USD amid the layoffs due to “severance costs, changes to our hardware portfolio and the cost of lease consolidation.”
In other tech news, Apple is reportedly developing a cheaper alternative to its rumored mixed reality headset.
